Small Business CRM Software

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) isn’t just for large corporations anymore. With today’s dynamic business environment, customer service is a key factor in differentiation and the use of CRM software technology has become critical, even for smaller businesses. However, enterprise CRM software systems can be intimidating for small businesses. These systems can come with huge price tags and complex implementations, which require more IT and financial resources than most small businesses can afford.

Recently, there has been a rise in CRM software for small businesses. These systems are a “lite” or bulk-free CRM solution, enabling small businesses to gain an edge in the competitive landscape. With the growing demand for small business CRM, there has been an increase in the number of small business CRM solutions available, with some vendors offering industry-specific solutions that specialize in a particular functionality, some that are hybrid solutions combining CRM with other software solutions, and some with the same fully-featured functionality as enterprise CRM.

Small business CRM provides contact management capabilities, without all the complex functions that only larger organizations require. They are designed to support limited groups of simultaneous users (usually 100 or less) over LANs rather than large user bases spread out over distributed, multi-server networks. Some of the more advanced capabilities that come standard with enterprise CRM packages are usually offered by small business CRMs as separately purchased add-on options. Many small business CRM applications are available as hosted or cloud solutions. This approach decreases the up-front costs of CRM software, allowing small businesses to take advantage of the services and features of CRM software. Additionally, cloud CRM eliminates long, complicated implementations, so smaller businesses can roll-out their solution quickly, with minimal impact on IT resources. Most small business CRM software offers:

• Robust contact management functionality that enables sales, marketing, and service and support staff to better manage their prospects and customers and execute related activities.
• Reporting capabilities that allow members of the management team to track the performance of sales initiatives and monitor key activities across multiple customer-facing operations.
• Workflow management that helps smaller businesses formalize and streamline their mission-critical procedures and create organization and structure within their sales operations.
• Scaled-down, budget-friendly licensing bundles that support smaller groups of users
• Flexibility and modularity that allow companies to pick and choose only the functionality they want, so they don’t waste money on features they aren’t likely to use.