subject: Picking a CRM [print this page] There are several criteria when picking a CRM for your business and you should choose wisely because changing it will come at a cost.
Fist aspect to take into consideration is the costs, not the price you pay for it but the cost of installing the CRM, loading the initial data and operation costs. Most of the CRMs require that you have your own server to run the software on it, but there are also online CRM systems that do not require a server but an Internet connection which is much cheaper.
Also, during the usage of the software, you might need some additional features and you will be asked to pay for those features, discuss with the developer about these fees.
Don't jump to get the system with most features. One way or another you will pay for all, if you don't need them they will just get you confused and it will take longer to get used to the application.
Access rights for each user are very important so you can let the salesperson to view his sales only and not see the purchase price for sold products.
The reports and charts it will compute are also very important it can save your employees many hours of work or you may even reduce your employees (from office work) number if the application delivers good reports.
During the exploitation of the CRM it may come a time when you would like to restore your database to a previously version here comes into action the developer's policy towards backup and restore, automatic and custom backup.
It is also recommended to pick a CRM which has data export options.
Before making a choice you must put into balance all the CRM advantages and costs so you get the most of it.
