Entrepreneurship & Small Business

What should I choose in case of CRM system, buying or building?

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  • May 9th, 2018 11:34 am
Banned
Mar 13, 2018
7 posts

What should I choose in case of CRM system, buying or building?

I need management system development for my small organic cosmetics company but don't know which type will be better in my case. Recommendations please?
8 replies
Deal Guru
User avatar
Mar 23, 2008
13006 posts
10009 upvotes
Edmonton
What about your business would lead you to believe that an “off the rack” CRM system wouldn’t fit your needs? Do you have any idea how much it would cost to develop and maintain a decent CRM application?

In case you haven’t guessed, my vote is buy. And I say that as someone who makes a living building software for other people. Even though I’ve got literally decades building financial applications, I’ll go buy QuickBooks over building my own accounting system, all day every day.

C
Banned
User avatar
Nov 22, 2017
16 posts
3 upvotes
USA, Colorado
It depends on a certain type of company you have, however in general there's such a great amount of such ready systems that I see no sense in building your own at all :) On the other hand both types have their own pros and cons, for example buying a ready CRM system is better when:

- your companie's budget is really limited
- you don't have a good, professional and separate software team
- for a common business like yours because already avaliable systems will have all necessary functions for you
- you face the lack of time for developing your company
- technology part isn't a necessary thing for your company (well, you sell cosmetics, not various tech gadgets and so on)

On the other hand, building your own CRM system is better when your company doesn't belong to the common ones and you need smth special and effective according to some certain needs, and avaliable software solve well all your business tasks https://idapgroup.com/blog/crm-systems-buy-vs-build/. Also you won't be able to modify greatly ready systems according to your certain needs and not all of them can be combined successfully with other programs.
The future is bulletproof, the aftermarth is secondary (c)
Member
Aug 5, 2003
358 posts
24 upvotes
Toronto
I agree with the above, and I am a CRM developer.
But first thing I would ask is what do you need your CRM to do for you? A lot of my customers move from spreadsheets to a CRM system when their needs become more complex. But if your needs are not that complex, maybe you can just use Excel. It really boils down to what you need your CRM to do for you.
Here's my HEAT.
Newbie
Jul 10, 2012
14 posts
1 upvote
Toronto
I won't consider building a system as it has become pretty much a commodity item. As for suggestions, I have implemented
Zoho CRM at an midsize company to great success, great feature set and price as compared to others including salesforce.
Sr. Member
May 29, 2004
559 posts
175 upvotes
If you already own nas like synology, you can install CRM available in their package.
Deal Expert
Aug 2, 2001
18945 posts
10527 upvotes
As your business grows you will learn the needs and pain points. Investing in a custom developed CRM system would be foolish at this point unless you have a specific set of requirements that off-the-shelf packages do not meet entirely and are able to demonstrate to yourself the value that meeting those requirements may likely bring.

One tip my boss has given me - try everything manually for a period of time. You will quickly learn what you want to keep track of and the value you associate to each of those things. You can then start to prioritize features within a CRM product and better evaluate which ones meet your needs. For example you may find that the ability to integrate with a mass emailing service is the most critical aspect of your CRM "wishlist", and then you can prioritize that feature when you select one.
Deal Fanatic
Dec 16, 2005
6905 posts
5592 upvotes
why not go for free opensource one like SuiteCRM? You can install it on your own servers and modify it if you need.

https://suitecrm.com/
Sr. Member
Sep 26, 2007
704 posts
126 upvotes
Toronto
Here are some additional questions to qualify if you will need a commercial CRM tool or not:
What will you use the CRM tool for? Customer records, quoting, invoicing, document management in some cases, forecasting, etc..
How many sellers will use the tool?
Do you require any customization or integration with other applications?

Many companies purchased commercial CRM tool and only 20-30% of the features of the tool is being used.
There is a lot of opensource CRM tool and sometimes they are free to use..
You may want to check them out.

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