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Guys Get A Buck
A proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that
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Marketing
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We’ve got to a point in our development and growth as a web business where we’re
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04.03.06
Major Players In The On-demand CRM Field
 By
NeophyteBlogger
On-demand CRM can be likened
to a disruptive technology that proves its usefulness over a period of time and
finally is there to stay.
On-demand solutions offer good value to the customers, which is why companies
such as Microsoft and Oracle are now joining the established players such as Salesforce.com.
On-demand CRM provides enterprises with the opportunity to concentrate on their
core-competencies and let the hosted provider take care of the maintenance and
technical aspects. According to research firm IDC, the on-demand CRM was of $
4.2 billion in 2004 and will rise to $ 10.7 billion by 2009.
As against on-premise solutions, on-demand solutions are easier and quicker to
install. The process of installing and deploying a traditional CRM can be a long-drawn
process that may take anywhere between nine to twenty-four months. It begins with
the purchasing of the required hardware, enlisting the help of professionals for
configuring the hardware, setting up a data center, configuring routers, and making
arrangements for backups.
mySAP does not provide functionalities such as quotation management, generation
of product forecasts, customization capabilities for adding new fields and menu
items. On the positive side, mySAP offers a fairly lenient contract that requires
commitment for only 18 to 24 months from the customer. Clients can cancel their
contracts and gain a complete refund without any penalty, the on-demand mySAP
will have an upgrade cycle of 90 days, which is more frequent as compared to the
on-premise version. The on-demand version of mySAP is available at $ 75 per month
for a minimum of a 100 users.
Salesforce.com is one of the foremost proponents of on-demand CRM technology.
Salesforce.com registered a growth of 83.7 percent in its sales for 2005 as compared
to 2004. Salesforce.com has also launched AppExchange, which is an application-sharing
directory and service intended to improve on-demand CRM. AppExchange will enable
companies to develop CRM suites and business application functionalities without
having to install software. AppExchange comes with connectors for SAP, PeopleSoft,
Siebel Systems, and Oracle.
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Salesforce.com does not charge a listing fee from individuals and companies that
wish to provide their software through AppExchange. The company has just announced
a new service plan called Unlimited Edition that will offer support for programs
created by customers or other programmers and used through AppExchange. According
to Salesforce, this will enable companies to access all their software on-demand.
The basic Salesforce.com CRM package starts at $ 65 per user per month, the Unlimited
Edition is available for $ 195 per user per month and it offers access to the
complete range of Salesforce.com CRM applications and AppExchange as well.
RightNow Technologies too has grown steadily and revenues in 2005 were 40.9 percent
higher than revenues from the previous year. Customers of RightNow Technologies
include British Airways and John Deere. RightNow has a client roster that covers
industries such as telecom, retail, education, and pharmaceuticals. Services cover
the enterprise, mid-market, and small business segment and service elements include
sales and marketing.
The marketing-automation software provided by the company
allows users to initiate campaigns across various channels and manage them easily.
It makes real-time data available that enables quantification of the effectiveness
of a campaign.
NetSuite CRM positions itself as the only web-based software vendor that combines
e-commerce, accounting, and CRM in one offering. It targets SMBs with its product
that it claims is on par with what the major vendors offered. Dashboards offered
by NetSuite allow companies to access critical business information through more
than seventy key performance indicators. The dashboards can be customized according
to the roles to be executed by the various employees; trends are visible on the
dashboard and meters track actual sales against forecasts. Tools offered by NetSuite
include marketing, opportunity tracking, order management, lead conversion, forecasting,
and case management. Businesses that are in collaboration can share customer and
sales data through the NetSuite CRM+, which is a partner-relationship management
application. The NetFlex platform introduced by NetSuite is positioned as an answer
to AppExchange developed by Salesforce.com. NetFlex is web-based and it enables
the development of applications such as database tables and forms.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, which was released in December 05, has Avaya, Axonom,
and Cisco Systems among its partners. Siemens Communications will be integrating
Microsoft's Dynamics CRM software with its contact center systems. The Microsoft
CRM offering is a single-tenant model, which means that Microsoft partners can
host vertical solutions; however, for an upgrade, the patch has to be made available
separately to each customer. Microsoft Dynamics supports a great deal of customization
so that the CRM package fits in with the company's business model. The product
which enables ad hoc querying is well-knit with Microsoft Office and Outlook.
A marketing-automation module allows companies to develop targeted marketing campaigns,
monitor the campaigns, send bulk e-mails, and build lead lists. Various aspects
of service-scheduling can be managed by the service-scheduling module. Microsoft
Dynamics 3.0 is available in a Professional Edition that costs in the range of
$ 622 to $ 880 per user and $ 1244 and $ 1761 per server. The prices vary as per
the features that one opts for. For SMBs, the hosted solution is priced at $ 440
to $ 499 per user and the per server price is between $ 528 and $ 599.
According to some experts, Oracle has the best hosted offering in the form of
Siebel CRM OnDemand. Last year, Oracle acquired Siebel in a deal worth $ 5.8 billion
and in the process also obtained around 3.7 million CRM users. CRM OnDemand offers
capabilities such as hosted sales-force automation, customer service capabilities,
an integrated call-center that allows for the management of communication in-house
and via remote channels. OnDemand Release 9 can be integrated with Lotus Notes,
Microsoft Outlook, and IVR systems. The sales-force automation tool enables the
development of various accounts within a main account; this facilitates managing
interaction with large clients. The call center feature enables VoIP integration
and routing of calls to cell phones and other off-premises numbers. OnDemand allows
for the apportioning of calls based on the skill sets of the call center agents.
Call center managers can track agent performance and guide them accordingly with
the help of features such as monitoring-and-recording, offline-coaching, and conference-calls.
The Oracle offering consists of CRM OnDemand and Contact OnDemand and costs $
150 per month for a user.
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