Comments on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Blog - The Official Blog of Increase CRM: Who's Who of Hosted CRM?

Hi, I'm all for innovation and new development, bu...

2008-11-10T09:48:00.000Z

Hi, I'm all for innovation and new development, but my experiences with these 'home grown' systems hasn't been good. Good functionality but little scope for customisation. Support varies wildly and getting access to your data, for downloading, integration or reports is practically impossible because of the custom formats.

I completely agree with Chris above, niche and new...

2008-11-09T17:28:00.000Z

I completely agree with Chris above, niche and new CRM vendors are differentiating by providing other applications. One such vendor is iKeeperOnline - they have CRM, Document Management, Business Process and Project Management all in one. Completely missing is email - I guess they leave that to outlook, as it is by far the most widely used.

More and more SME's are also looking to implement ...

2008-09-18T19:32:00.000+01:00

More and more SME's are also looking to implement not only CRM but also other key application areas into one business platform.

Some of those above mentioned like netsuite do this but a little known but emerging uk company IPS with their i-Tr@der product is set to make a real impact in the coming 12 months!

Not only CRM the product includes integrated email, accounts, file storage and a host of collaborative tools.

The system is being offered also free for the first year and only £60 from month 13. This is for under 10 user licence.

So there are lots of emerging ideas which will make this whole arena very interesting in the coming years.

Good article, but you have forgot to mention 2 gre...

2008-09-18T16:33:00.000+01:00

Good article, but you have forgot to mention 2 great all-in-one solutions like zoho and kazeli.

Don't forget Really Simple Systems Hosted CRM, www...

2008-09-18T15:51:00.000+01:00

Don't forget Really Simple Systems Hosted CRM, www.reallysimplesystems.com - we are the largest UK vendor of hosted CRM systems!

Thanks Dean, well spotted. Should be working now.

2008-09-12T16:58:00.000+01:00

Thanks Dean, well spotted. Should be working now.

Whoops, sage link is broken :)

2008-09-12T16:54:00.000+01:00

Whoops, sage link is broken :)

Hi Darin, you're right about paying little bit mo...

2008-06-11T13:52:00.000+01:00

Hi Darin, you're right about paying little bit more for brand names. Open source SaaS providers and niche or new entrants are often significantly less than the names I've mentioned.

Is there a reason for this? Well, aside from new entrants 'buying' their way into a market by undercutting the established vendors, I think the established vendors also have higher costs.

And this is where I disagree with your second point. It's usually easier to customise or integrate a big name SaaS provider's CRM software because they have invested much, much more in R&D than a niche provider in their product's customisation and integration technology. Also, they'll have hundreds or thousands of customers who have integrated their SaaS CRM system with another system. Niche vendors usually don't have ease of customisation or integration because they never had the R&D budget, and they are unlikely to ever have the sizeable customer or partner base where someone has already performed the customisation or integration you have in mind.

Just a tip...You'll pay a little bit more for the ...

2008-06-09T21:49:00.000+01:00

Just a tip...You'll pay a little bit more for the brand names of course, and they are usually not as easy to customize and integrate with.