Customers express requirements in various forms. Sometimes they come as specifics, other times as aspirations or may be as pain points. But most of the time, a combination of all. In this blog post, we shall cover various aspects of customer CRM needs and analyze CRM Implementation cost by analyzing its components.
Project scoping
It is important to decipher the cryptic needs, formulate and present them back in a simple and easy to understand format. It will help to see a clearer, holistic and viable picture. Clarity of information also helps the senior management in gaining confidence in the project scope as well as in the capabilities of the CRM implementation partner. From project execution point of view this is the first step in the right direction and prove as half the battle won. The successful outcome of anything is dependent on the clarity and comprehensiveness of the input.
Requirement capturing
Moving further to the stage where complexity of the project is assessed. One may have queries around selecting the CRM system that will suit their needs the best. This could be based on features, market or region CRM will be used in, and budgetary estimates. Consider scoping based on the customization of the add-on software / tools and integration of CRM. Integration may be required with in-house and/or third party apps like SSO (Single Sign On), mobile application and CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) and more. Customization requirements are ascertained by filtering out the coding of extra scripts beyond configurable tools.
A proficient implementer selects the middle path. Select the least coding scenarios and make use of already available features of the CRM and add-on apps from the marketplace. Also leverage the integration through platform APIs. Avoiding the additional software coding also saves the implementation time and efforts of development life cycle management, code maintenance, app version management and compliance to various standards of the industry and cyber security. A CRM platform, together with, a few good marketplace apps will ensure all of above. It will make the process smooth for an organization by keeping them oblivious to the iterative change management requirements at the platform’s end.
Reports and Analytics
Another aspect that determines the solution outcome and the price of it are the reports. One must note that the reporting requirements and complexity of them, mostly, depend on the current stage and size of the business. For example, an organization at a mature stage of their life demands more sophisticated (complex, real-time, diverse, granular) reports. It is likely that this organization would not be implementing the system afresh but transition from an existing one. Therefore, more the complexity more the price.
Product Pricing
Next, understand how licensing and associated costs work. These are either calculated from the usage of the resources or features or by the count of people or actors who will use those resources, or combination of both. In other words, one must estimate the use of various features, modules, storage space, number of records, internet traffic or number of online requests plus count of people at various levels (hierarchy), inside (departments) and outside (partners), of the organization who will use those features or make online requests. Detailing it further; when it comes to CRM, every organization has two kinds of users, those who play an active role in interacting with the customers and others who do the supporting job. Another way of looking at it is by counting users who will directly engage with the customers (front-end staff) versus others performing internal duties (Back-end staff). Front-end agents respond to the customers by bridging their queries to the back-end agents of accounts, logistics, transportation departments etc. and update the customer after receiving feedback from them. Since most of the CRM vendors place higher license charges on the users playing the front-end role, it is important that their numbers are well thought of. License for backend staff is generally free or comes at a fraction of the cost of the front end. Apart from this, calculating the number of users who will do Analytics, web-designing, system administration and certain management roles also help as all these users consume a license equivalent to the front end agent. If a CRM system is accessed from many external systems and it will have to provide separate API credentials, each credential may cost a full license.
Ancillary Requirements
Finally, there may be some customization cost for middleware development, web-page designing, email template creation and usage of certain hosting services and partner implementation fee.
While selecting a CRM implementation / management partner, always look for the one who is up-front and transparent with respect to all of the above cost components. Although PaaS / SaaS systems provide extensive low-code / no-code capability, it is unlikely that and organization’s expectations are met 100% as every project has a unique set of their own requirements. TecRivulet has the best implementation record with zero deviation at any stage of the project. The projects have been carried out with thorough details and transparent costing structure. TecRivulet pays special attention to the budgetary constraints of the clients. Having been experienced on platforms like Zendesk, Freshdesk and Zoho, a platform suiting the best cost optimization is suggested to the clients. Contact us to schedule a free consulting session.