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Hosted_CRM_What_is_it
| Hosted CRM: What is it?
San Francisco, CA (ARTICLEMARKETER) August 09, 2005 -- When
hosted CRM was first introduced, concerns were voiced about its
drawbacks: the lack of customization, integration with other
applications, support, third party storage, control over data
control and the performance of service reps - not to mention the
all-important security issue. Hosting’s biggest drawback is that
your most important data is in a third-party’s hands.
Although CRM, as hosted solutions are also known, are not as
difficult or as costly to install as packaged solutions, they
still require an infrastructure, significant IT resources, and
time to deploy.
Application integration has been another challenge for ASPs.
Since ASPs unilaterally update their code bases, this opens the
possibility that an integrated business process could be broken
by a change that you don’t control.
Privacy and privacy laws are another concern: you must
investigate what safeguards an ASP offers to protect your data.
As you can see, hosted CRM isn’t perfect. Aberdeen researchers
found that when considering these problems, support for hosting
dampens. One way around this might be a hybrid approach: rent
now, buy later.
It Does Not Have To Be Either-Or
Another emerging trend is that companies adopt hosted solutions
as a low-risk way of evaluating a CRM solution’s capabilities
before they buy into an in-house set up. This approach allows
companies to mitigate risk and experience the benefits of rapid
time-to-value. Once companies see a ROI, then they can choose to
bring the solution in-house.
The decision between an in-house implementation and a hosted
solution is based on many factors. It is important to evaluate
your business plan, technology strategy, risk profile, IT
budgets, IT resources, opportunity costs, customization
requirements and industry-sector requirements.
Visit http://www.sales-force-software.com for more information.
About the author:
Contact: David Cowgill http://www.sales-force-software.com
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