Best CRM Systems: Which Platform Gets You The Most Bang For Your Buck

Best CRM Systems: CRM (customer relationship management) software is a class of enterprise software that basically covers a wide range of applications as well as software that’s designed to assist companies in accessing important business data, managing both customer interaction and customer data as well as automating sales, customer support, marketing, and also managing vendor, partner, and help a business decipher between customer needs and wants.

CRM Software Today

CRM software is created to help companies meet the goals and demands of customer relationship management. CRM software today is highly customizable and scalable, which enables businesses to gain more clientele insights along with a back-end diagnostic engine, streamline operations, view key business opportunities with foreseeable analytics, and personalized customer service according to the client’s past history and former interactions with your organization.

CRM software is generally used to effectively manage business-client relationships. But, the software can also be used in a similar manner in order to successfully manage contacts, sales leads, contract wins, and clients in general as well.

Below is a basic CRM Software Review of the top five systems according to global market share:

Salesforce

Although Salesforce is relatively new, it follows the path of no one. It’s currently the most popular CRM software publisher overall. While it’s not as large as its fierce competitors, including SAP, Microsoft, or Oracle, it has nevertheless gained more than two million customers worldwide.

Salesforce has become one of the primary providers of CRM software applications that’s delivered through a cloud computing model or SaaS (software as a service). The company’s main solution involves a CRM system created for businesses and industries of all sizes throughout the world.

Also, Salesforce provides a PaaS (platform as a service) solution known as ‘Force’ (Force.com) and manages an integrated third party type of systems portfolio in an ecosystem online called ‘AppExchange’. Salesforce markets its enterprise software and CRM solutions to various organizations on a subscription basis, essentially via a direct sales model as well as indirectly in a business partner approach.

SAP

SAP’s CRM solution includes a fully integrated client relationship management software system manufactured by SAP that primarily targets the general requirements of business software of both midsize and large businesses for virtually all sectors and industries.

The SAP CRM application involves a variety of integrated modules that fully support client-facing functional areas such as:

  • SAP CRM Sales
  • SAP CRM Marketing
  • SAP CRM Interaction Center
  • SAP CRM Service
  • SAP CRM Partner Channel Management
  • SAP CRM Web Channel (including E-Service, E-Marketing, and E-Commerce)

Like its top competitor Oracle, SAP chose to release a SaaS CRM type of product known as SAP Sales on Demand. But, this web-based solution is more about enhancing their on-premise products in general.

Oracle

Oracle’s range of CRM products consist of Oracle Siebel CRM, Oracle Contact Center Anywhere, Oracle CRM on Demand, Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise, and Oracle E-Business Suite. The company itself retains more than 5,000 CRM customers worldwide, about 130 million users in self-service, and approximately 5 million users in general.

Since its acquisition in 2005 by Oracle, the product has maintained a forward push, but not without some hefty competition from one of its biggest competitors (SAP) along with a number of ways to measure market share. Today, Oracle and SAP both claim the top spots in the CRM software industry. However, most analysts are inclined to give Oracle software a slight edge, although it’s primarily based on which benchmarks are counted and variables are used overall.

Sugar CRM

Sugar CRM is considered the best CRM software available today. Not only is it very affordable, it doesn’t require you to get an upgrade or feature any hidden fees. It also enables each staff member to effectively handle customers face-to-face. Sugar CRM is known for creating excellent relationships between clients and salespeople. It automates different aspects of the business including customer service as well as marketing and selling.

Also, Sugar CRM can potentially make sales teams as much as 20 percent more efficient overall since it perfectly combines the basic mobility, simplicity, and social components of a consumer app along with optimizing the business process of traditional CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has turned into a prominent CRM software solution. Microsoft CRM stands alone in an ever-changing CRM marketplace since the same code set can be used in the SaaS remote delivery model or incorporated on-premise. Customers can also directly subscribe from Microsoft to Dynamics CRM or else choose from a variety of specialized partners.

Microsoft CRM’s latest release now enables SaaS clients as well as business partners to easily install server-side code within the Microsoft data centers and cloud. Microsoft CRM software will keep advancing together with Azure, Microsoft’s highly regarded public cloud.

This CRM comparison regarding CRM software is offered in a variety of installations, which include on-premises or as cloud (web-based) applications where the software itself is typically hosted through a CRM provider and then accessed by the client’s online business through the secure services of the provider.

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