Yes and Yes. The need for providing efficient services today is greater than ever before. In this competitive scenario, customer relationship management (CRM) is extremely crucial for survival, as it helps in providing personalized and customized services that most consumers demand.
However, a large-scale implementation of CRM remains beyond the budget of most business enterprises even today. Cloud-based CRM presents itself as a viable alternative that fits the bill for all your customer relationship needs without burning a hole in your pocket. If you haven’t thought about it yet, here’s why integrating cloud computing and CRM in business makes sense:
Greater Agility and Flexibility
To begin with, the biggest advantage of integrating cloud computing and CRM in your business is it makes the whole process of managing customer relationships more agile and flexible in comparison to traditional concept of using on-site applications. This naturally means quicker results and a greater scope for according individually tailored services to your client base, which is precisely the purpose of CRM in the first place.
Saves Money and Time
Getting maximum returns with minimum investment of time and money is the basic premise that any business operates on, and cloud-based CRM allows you to do just that. In cloud-based CRM systems, you have the freedom to customize the services you avail as per your specific needs, which means you only pay for the package, space, hardware and applications you use.
This is an effective way of cutting down in implementation and operational cost and time. Besides, cloud-based CRM can be implemented in a matter of weeks where as implementation of on-site CRM is a long-drawn process.
CRM on Cloud is the Way Ahead
If you compare traditional practices in CRM implementation that were in vogue say more than a decade ago with the modern Cloud-based CRM implementation, there is a stark difference in terms of deployment costs, time and cost involved in environment support, maintenance, uploads and upgrade process.
By choosing an efficient services provider, you can reap benefits of data migration and analysis, thereby using CRM as a vital tool for handling customer relations.
Big Data Can be Tapped to Improve CRM
Cloud-based CRM means storing customer related information and data remotely. With the evolution of big data and its mainstream application where voluminous chunks of data are continuously stored and retrieved from clouds, businesses can hope to access data collected from multiple sources and analysis to develop a better understanding of customer behavior, thereby improving on CRM.
Security Risk is Overplayed
Data security risks are perceived to be the biggest deterrent in the way of cloud-based CRM implementation. But if you invest with a reputed vendor, managing these security issues should be the least of your concerns. A majority of vendors today ensure data security by putting in place a multi-layered security system that comprises both physical and virtual security of data centers.
In the modern times, writing off CRM and cloud computing as mere ‘fads’ may result in undermining the scope of expansion for your business operations. If you are aiming to add compelling value to your business venture, cloud-based CRM is the way to go.
