If you are the owner of a medium or large business, then you are probably already familiar with most of the popular CRM solutions. You are here, on this page, which means that the very stage of development has been reached, when ready-made products are no longer able to cover all the needs and support you on the path to further growth and success.
Unique and standardized CRM systems
Up to 70% of attempts to adapt integrated systems fail or completely abandon the use of CRM. This applies to both ready-made solutions and custom-made ones.
In the first case, the business owner pays for the desire to save on development, and in the second case, for insufficient involvement in the process of creating a unique solution. It is important to understand that custom CRM development involves teamwork. Developers have not yet learned how to read the minds of customers, besides, no one knows the whole inner workings and basic needs of the company better than its founder.
Disadvantages of a unified CRM system:
- Surface Integration . Most of the CRMs that exist on the market in the “Buy and use” mode are stereotyped and designed for the mass consumer. The next conclusion follows from this: you will not be able to integrate them into your business at 100% efficiency.
- Abundance of unnecessary functions . Off-the-shelf CRM products are created with the expectation of a wide audience and try to cover the needs of a wide variety of commercial industries.
- Limited customization options . Template CRM is a system with a set of standard features that cannot be fully customized to your needs. Using ready-made CRMs can be compared to buying shoes a size smaller – you have shoes, but they are uncomfortable.
Creating a CRM system from scratch assumes that as a result you will get an effective, unique tool with a comfortable design and the most important functions. And when developing turnkey solutions, you always leave yourself the opportunity to refine and supplement the product in accordance with current needs.
Who needs to create a turnkey CRM system?
The implementation of a CRM system, unique or not, sometimes does not bring any benefit at all. It all depends on the business model of the company.
If you work only with regular customers and are not interested in attracting new ones, creating a CRM system from scratch does not make sense. But if you are in the stage of an active search for customers and are focused on collecting data about potential buyers of your product, then a CRM system is exactly what you need.
CRM systems are most often used by companies from the following areas:
- eCommerce;
- consulting;
- Property For Sale;
- hotel and restaurant business;
- construction;
- logistics.
The advantages of a CRM system become especially noticeable at the stage of active business growth. Whereas previously you could track customers through simple channels (email or personal notes), now this is not enough.
First of all, information should be available to all employees at any time; without an adapted CRM system, you will have to spend valuable time searching for important data. The main benefits of CRM include:
- shared access to important information about business processes and customer data through a single platform;
- a single database of contacts (emails, phone numbers, social networks and websites);
- a single interface for communicating with clients, available to each employee;
- flexible system of roles and accesses;
- storing the history of communication with customers and partners;
- storage of purchase history;
- integrated customer support system;
- tracking the most effective sales channels;
- collecting information about how customers find your company.
The need to enter data manually significantly reduces the productivity of sales teams. The CRM system serves as a tool for automating monotonous activities and frees employees from endless work with daily administrative tasks.
Implementing CRM helps build a standardized sales process, provide employees with a step-by-step roadmap to close deals, and shorten the sales cycle.
Development of a CRM system: stages and main features
So, you are firmly convinced that the implementation of a unique CRM is necessary for the success of your enterprise. Most likely, now you are interested in the most important question: “How to create a CRM?” If you do not have a technical background and you have nothing to do with the programming community, the easiest way out is to order the development of a CRM system from a team of experienced specialists.
The creation of CRM is a large-scale and complex project that requires the maximum involvement of the customer in the development process. It includes three main steps:
- Deep analysis of your business . The contractor team must have a business analyst who will help collect the most complete information about your company, website, important features of commercial activity and internal processes, for example, work organization.
- Development . Developers study data from a business analyst and create an optimized CRM system, taking into account all the recommendations and wishes of the client.
- QA testing, bug detection, integration . This is the final stage when the product is tested by the test team. They are in charge of identifying and fixing bugs. Installation and integration of CRM is possible only after all necessary checks.
How much does a CRM system cost and how long will it take to develop?
The cost of developing a CRM system depends on many factors. We list the main ones:
- Number of functions and options. Each new feature is a new piece of code that requires a certain number of developer hours. You pay for this time.
- Number of roles and access levels . It all depends on the hierarchy in your company. For example, you might want to implement the roles of project manager, sales manager, divisional representative, and so on. Each of these roles requires a different level of access, which is also specified in the code.
- Integration of third-party services. A large number of complex platforms that need to be integrated into the system significantly increases the cost of developing a software solution.
- Presence/absence of a mobile version of . There are two options in total: adapting the site for mobile devices or creating a separate mobile application. In the second case, the cost and development time increase by almost 2 times.
- Automation . If you want to automate processes as much as possible, then the cost of system development will be much higher.
How much does all this cost?
The cost is purely individual and is calculated based on your requirements and wishes for the development and functions of the system. Note that the cost depends on the hourly rate of the work of specialists. Depending on the scale of the project, the development cost can be either fixed or flexible.
The process of developing a CRM system: briefly about the main
After the team has decided on the CRM architecture, the developers start working in the chosen framework. To develop a CRM system, programmers work according to a standard sprint system. The team usually consists of 4-6 people.
Each developer has his own area of responsibility and works on a specific task. One sprint rarely lasts more than 2 weeks. After the completion of the sprint, the team demonstrates the result of the work done to the client.
Mission: to create a CRM system. How to choose a contractor?
You can either use outsourcing solutions or hire your own staff of programmers.
Benefits of outsourcing:
- Cheaper than owning your own staff;
- Development within a clearly defined time frame;
- The contractor’s team undertakes the development and implementation of the solution, as well as trains the staff;
- Quality assurance (companies value reputation).
When creating your own staff of programmers, the following problems may arise:
- A team of disparate specialists will need to be united, time will be spent on creating interaction between them.
- There is a big risk of finding low-quality specialists. If you do not know highly specialized concepts, you can get a poor-quality result.
- Search time. Finding quality professionals is not an easy task.
findings
- Own CRM-system will allow you to get a more personalized approach to the company’s business processes and will be integrated for a specific niche, unlike template CRM.
- The development of a CRM system consists of three main stages: a deep analysis of your business, development and testing with integration.
- The advantages of your own CRM include general access to information, a single interface for communicating with customers, tracking the most effective sales channels, a single contact database, a flexible system of roles and accesses, etc.