CRM Application & Vendor Selection Guide
A lot of factors go into selecting the appropriate CRM application and vendor for your customer relationship management program. Not all applications are created equal and one of them is going to be a better fit for your industry and business.
This guide is a checklist list of the factors that you need to consider when making your selection. The guide is broken down into the important requirements that you need to consider.
Factors that need to be considered:
Under general business requirements, you should consider and evaluate these factors:
- Ability to Connect Offline
- Accounting System Integration
- Activity Planning & Tracking Capabilities
- Customization of Reports
- Exchange Server Integration
- Google Apps Integration
- Google Maps Integration
- Lotus Notes Integration
- Microsoft Excel Import/Export
- Microsoft Word Integration
- Mobile Access Capabilities
- Outlook Calendar Integration
- Outlook Email Integration
- Secure Web or Other Remote Access Options
- Shared Calendars Functionality
- Workflow Automation
Under technical requirements, you should consider and evaluate these factors:
- Communications Templates Creation / Mgmt. Capabilities
- Customization Capabilities
- Data Management Capabilities
- Desktop Administration Capabilities
- Email Administration Capabilities
- Integration with other Applications
- Manage Users Capabilities
- Mobile Administration Capabilities
- Monitoring Capabilities
- Offline Briefcase Configurations Management
- Online Help Tools
- Translation Customization Capabilities
- User & Group Security Settings
- User Training Capabilities, Tools, Etc.
Under contact management requirements, you should consider and evaluate these factors:
- Account History & Tracking
- Advanced Search
- Bounced Contacts Management Capabilities
- Call/Email History & Tracking
- Contact Hierarchy Management
- Customizable Objects & Fields
- Customizable User Interface
- Important Accounts and Contacts
- List Building & Management
- Mail Merge for Letters and Faxes
- Mass Email Recipient Selection and Management
- Sync to Lotus Notes
- Sync to Outlook
- Time/Date Stamped Notes
Under customer services and support requirements, you should consider and evaluate these factors:
- Billable Time Tracking
- Case Monitoring Tied to Service Level Agreements
- Case Routing & Escalation
- Case Customization Options
- Case/Ticket Management
- Customer Self-Service Portal
- Customer Service Dashboard
- Customer Service Reports
- Knowledge Base
Under marketing requirements, you should consider and evaluate these factors:
- Budget & Expense Monitoring
- Marketing Automation / Email Integration
- Campaign Dashboard
- Campaign Management
- Campaign Response Metrics
- Campaign ROI Measurement
- Compliance with CAN-SPAM
- Customer Segmentation & Profiling
- Customer Survey Tools
- Customizable Campaign Fields
- HTML Email Marketing
- Marketing Collateral Management
- Web Lead Capture
Under sales requirements, you should consider and evaluate these factors:
- Contact Center Features (IP-PBX integration)
- Integration with Prospecting Tools
- Lead Dashboards
- Lead Management
- Lead/Customer Mapping to Google Maps
- Lead/Customer Route Planning to Google Maps
- Lead Reports
- Opportunity (funnel) Management
- Partner Relationship Management
- Sales Dashboards
- Sales Process Methodology
- Sales Reports
- Territory Management Features
Once you've rated each vendor and application on these factors, you should have greater confidence in selecting the application that best fits your needs. Of course, one of the factors not included in these list is cost, either in the form of subscription service or outright purchase of the application and other associated cost of implementation and ongoing support. So, your final selection of potential candidates both in terms of the application and vendor support should factor in direct and indirect costs. An example of direct cost being the purchase or subscription price. Examples of indirect cost being the cost of hiring and training personnel within your organization to manage the system, as well as the cost of integrating this system with other data management systems.