Customer Relationship Management applications

In time, however, the results pay off. "We've had it in place for about a year and the tipping point for value occurred at around six months when you could see the database history being built up to a useful level," he says.

A key benefit of CRM to Imaxeon has been creating a central database for all customers replacing several smaller databases. Chang explains that having one central data source makes it easier to keep the data up to date and has resulted in improved communication between sales and service and the back office, allowing anyone to determine the status of an order or a service case by looking up the centralised data. "I don't think you really realise you need a CRM solution until you have it,” he concludes.

Hosted Service

Where CRM software is offered on a hosted or SaaS (Software as a Service) basis, a business can buy in with little or no financial or technical risk. The software is paid for like a utility bill on a per-seat per-month basis so there is no huge capital outlay on hardware and software and little IT skill is required to get started. Upgrades and maintenance are automatically performed by the SaaS provider as part of the ongoing price. According to Cooper, the Salesforce.com experience is that, on average, a business will be up and running in 15 days, which includes the time to migrate data from existing applications. The cost of an entry level contact management solution to an SME is around $14 per-seat per-month, and with additional features may scale up to around $95 per-seat per-month. Cooper anticipates a business should see a ROI in around six months. For businesses considering the benefits of a move to CRM, Salesforce.com offers a 30-day free full production trial for SMEs wanting to trial the program to see it if works for the business.

In addition to the Salesforce.com product there is an associated AppExchange which is a directory of online applications that enhance and add value to Salesforce.com by addressing specific business needs. These applications can be shared and installed on Salesforce.com with a few clicks. There are some 600 applications available on AppExchange, some of them built by companies such as Sqware Peg. Sqware Peg also offers services to SMEs that prefer not to configure their own Salesforce.com application. William Scully-Power general manager of agency On-Demand at Sqware Peg, explains that in his experience applications like Salesforce.com benefit SMEs because "they can start small and pay as they go" and the solutions are scalable so they grow as the business grows.