Custom CRM or manufacturer CRM? First of all, we are not going to cover the advantages that a CRM can provide or the reasons to implement a CRM strategy in a company. In summary, it will allow a business, among many other options, to increase sales. By knowing their customers in more detail, they will offer the best service, maintaining their loyalty and attracting new customers.

The advantage of CRM software is especially important in an increasingly competitive world where we have to give a quick and effective response to the needs of the market. Therefore, many companies have decided to implement a CRM to improve their relationship with their customers. But there is an important question to answer after deciding to invest in CRM software. Custom CRM or manufacturer CRM? 

There are many CRM systems to choose from. The need to implement a CRM is clear, but before choosing a specific one, we need to ask ourselves, custom CRM or manufacturer CRM? We will try to answer this question. For this, we will focus on some significant points that we have to take into account and help us make a decision.

Custom CRM or manufacturer CRM? What does my company need from a CRM software?

All companies have their own sales processes, each sells in a unique way, has its own strategy, its own market, and its own products and services. Therefore, when they think of investing in CRM they must make a decision. Do they opt for a CRM that offers generic processes, or build their own application adapting it to their specific requirements? So, then, do they need a custom CRM or manufacturer CRM?

Requirements and functionalities for a Custom CRM or manufacturer CRM

If we decide to opt for a custom CRM, we have to take into account everything that our CRM should contemplate. Do we need all the basic functionalities of the CRM? In addition to the basic ones, there are other more specific ones.

The most specific features of CRM are many. For example, activity planning, synchronization with Outlook, import contact lists, relate contacts to other records and more. All this, as we had explained, gives us an idea of ​​the minimum we have to address if we decide to make our own application.

A CRM manufacturer is monitoring the industry and is providing its CRM with all those functionalities that businesses could need. Therefore, the CRM appears with a whole series of functionalities in the different modules that it presents. How many of them you need will help you determine if you need custom CRM or manufacturer CRM.

Flexibility at the time you decide between custom CRM or manufacturer CRM

The CRM will have to be working together with a whole series of systems and applications of the company and also has to cover the business needs. Therefore, it must have a certain capacity to adapt correctly. Here are a series of important points to consider to make a decision.

User Interface (UI)

The user interface can be a very important point. Especially for those companies that need to give a certain brand image or require some complexity. Custom development could be very effective for that purpose. It is also true that the development could be done to present a user interface to customers and maintain the CRM for the internal user where that UI is not required.

Customizable

The CRM has to cover all the needs, although on many occasions, and over time, new improvements have to be added for some specific functionality. Therefore, it is required that the CRM be able to add these new customizations.

Infrastructure

Any application, whether its own development or not, need client and server software. It is possible that the choice of a specific CRM software creates the need for software that is not available within the infrastructure or that an investment that increases costs has to be made. This could be a problem or critical factor in the choice as it is certain that their own software could be developed on the current infrastructure. Therefore, these costs would not be necessary in the case of their own development.

Security

In this competitive world, information is power. Therefore, the CRM should be equipped with mechanisms that strengthen data security, both external and internal. You must also have to apply security at the user level based on the organizational hierarchy, roles or regions.

In a company, users work in multiple applications. Therefore, a system that allows access to each of them without having to write credentials in each of them improves user productivity and facilitates the transition between applications. A CRM tool facilitates this functionality. 

Mobility

Currently, there is a wide variety of phones and tablets from which we can access many applications through mobile applications or browsers. They have become a very important tool for businesses that need to access sales information quickly. 

Reporting

Many of the CRMs come with functionalities to create reports, graphs, dashboards and the like. However, they are not as advanced as they can be or as useful as specific reporting applications. To meet the needs of your business, it will be necessary to customize the CRM to include reports or acquire an analytical tool separately.

Updates and Support

All applications periodically require updates and hotfixes to be applied. In addition, updating basic software such as operating systems, browsers or office automation can also impact the CRM. In the case of manufacturers, they have a whole team dedicated to testing and developing hotfixes.

Manufacturers release updates or new versions every 18 months or so. This could be important in those large companies where a complete update can take several years and loses the support of the manufacturer.

Conclusion            

All of these factors are important to keep in mind and can help you opt for a custom CRM or manufacturer CRM, but to simplify it further, there is a direct question to answer. Do we want to devote ourselves to developing software? If the answer is no, the decision is clear, we have to opt for a manufacturer CRM.

Software development might be costly. We have to think about performing requirements analysis, functional, design, prototypes, system and end-user documentation, training, technical support, developments and the like. All of them aren’t easy tasks and cost money. When you opt for a manufacturer CRM, all this is transferred to the manufacturer who has experience and the cost is distributed among its thousands of users.

However, it’s very possible that the software does not adapt exactly to your requirements. Custom CRM or manufacturer CRM? If you really need custom CRM software to help your business grow, contacting a professional development team like Innatos is your best choice.