The price of a CRM system is more than the cost of the CRM software and IT to run it - there are a variety of other factors you need to include. There’s a new article on the Concentrix website called “So how much does a CRM system cost?” which discusses what you need to consider to when estimating the price of implementing a CRM system.
To summarise, before starting a CRM project there's usually three main areas of costs to look at:
The software costs: these cover the price of CRM software licences and the price of CRM software maintenance.
Professional Service Costs: these are what you or your CRM solutions provider need to get done to get your CRM system up and running. Professional service costs in CRM projects include a number of variables: everything from defining the project to hardware and training.
Cost of support: the price of keeping your CRM system going, which will include things like user support, access to a helpdesk and so on.
How much of each area you use, and therefore how much the total CRM system costs you depends on your business requirements. After defining your business requirements, developing and working through a project scoping document will help you accurately define costs.
Working out CRM software costs is usually straightforward as they have a clearly identifiable unit price.
The professional services are harder to quantify and are where working out the price of a CRM system gets more involved. Typical issues which affect the complexity of a project and hence the level of professional services you require include:
§ How far from ‘out of the box’ functionality you intend to go and the level of system configuration required
§ Your data – how much is there? What format? Is it clean?
§ The sophistication of your reporting requirement
§ Training requirements
§ Your existing IT infrastructure (hardware etc)
CRM system support costs depend mainly on your solutions provider, the complexity of your system and number of users, and what level of support you choose,
As well as costs, an independent CRM specialist can advise the most appropriate CRM software to suit your business, how it will fit into your existing systems, how it will integrate with other business software, your budget and much more.
“So how much does a CRM system cost?” goes into more detail about all the issues you need to consider when assessing the price of implementing a new CRM system. But of course, talking to and independent CRM specialists such as Concentrix will save you time and help make sure you’ve taken everything into account when budgeting for a CRM project!
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