For modern day businesses, automation of business processes is more a requirement than an option. However, while larger businesses usually don’t consider software costs unreasonable, middle and small businesses make such decisions very cautiously as the benefits from such investments are not always visible at the first sight.
It’s necessary to remember that continuous interaction with a customer is one of the key requirements of today’s businesses. Controlling the flow of incoming calls, online requests, emails, etc. is very important. It’s hard to practice the now popular customer-oriented approach without a united customer relation management system.
That’s why CRM systems are so necessary for every company that works with customers directly. And that is why the number of companies switching to the SaaS CRM model are quickly growing every year.
Let’s see why it’s necessary for small businesses to switch to a cloud CRM even now.
1. You Can Start Using It Right Away
Many business owners reckon installation and deployment of a CRM is a troublesome and difficult process. In reality, though, modern cloud CRMs cause no technical troubles and can come into use immediately.
You don’t need expensive equipment and top-grade servers or hire a full-time IT specialist to use a cloud CRM. There are no complications with CRM deployment and installing updates. All this is done remotely and with almost no efforts from your side.
You only need internet access to register and start using a cloud CRM.
2. You Can Access a Cloud CRM on Any Device
One of the obvious benefits of cloud CRM applications is their availability anywhere and anytime. Imagine you need to make an extremely important business call or send a corrected business offer to a client, or simply need to find an email address or phone number while you are out of your office.
Cloud technologies allow you to access your CRM from anywhere, be it the office, cafe, train or your home. You can access cloud CRMs from different devices – your PC, notebook, tablet, or smartphone.
You or your colleagues can access the centralized database round-the-clock, and you can work on it even after office hours, which is often important for smaller companies.
Thanks to this 24/7 availability, cloud CRMs offer you flexibility and allow you to work whenever you want.
3. Modern CRM Applications Are Easy to Use
It’s hard to imagine anything simpler than using a cloud CRM. You only need to buy a software package for a fixed monthly payment and sign-in to your account from a preferred device. You don’t need to worry about anything else.
4. CRMs Are Available for All Kinds of Businesses
According to the Gartner research, the cloud CRM market grew by 12% from 2014 to 2015. There are acknowledged CRM market leaders, such as Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft. New players also keep arriving in the market, offering more niche solutions and more attractive pricing models.
Usually, small companies cannot afford to invest large sums of money in software, and prefer small regular payments. Cloud CRMs completely satisfy this requirement.
Most cloud CRMs use the pay-as-you-go model, with minimal upfront investments and minimal commercial risks. Besides, there are no additional hidden costs, such as purchasing any additional equipment or licenses.
5. Cloud CRMs Are More Secure Than Your Desktop
When working with business data remotely, data security is often a major concern. According to research, data security is the main reason why companies hesitate in using cloud solutions.
This is why most cloud CRM companies invest heavily in data security. Their infrastructure is reliably designed to ensure continuity of service and safeguard data from hardware failure. To minimize the errors that originate on the user’s end, most service providers, including Salesforce, recommend using third party backup solutions, such as Skyvia or Spanning.
6. Cloud CRMs Are Maintained by Specialized Professionals
Even the slightest possibility of a system failure is a terrifying thought for small businesses who’re usually short on cash. For many of them, it can easily lead to a financial disaster.
Cloud CRMs completely eliminate such possibilities because all cloud subsystems are replicated. This means that each cloud system component, for example, a server, has a shadow replica running.
If the master server goes down, the system instantly switches to a shadow server so that you can continue your work without even noticing an error.
In general, cloud CRMs are available 99,99% of the time.
7. You Can Tailor a CRM According to Your Business
What’s better than a product designed specifically for your business? To start using a cloud CRM, small companies usually need only a small subset of its features, corresponding to their current business needs. However, as a company grows, it may need, more space for data or some advanced software modules.
Cloud CRMs can easily be scaled for new business needs. Most CRMs are built with a modular structure and you can enable these modules whenever you need. Of course, enabling new modules for your cloud CRM account is often not free.
8. Modern CRMs Support Third Party Integrations
Stand-alone software solutions have low success chances in the new digital world which requires flexibility and integration.
Many cloud CRMs provide built-in integration with external applications and software products. There is also a wide choice of 3rd party solutions for integration of cloud CRM data with other CRMs, accounting, marketing, and eCommerce tools, databases, and other sources.
For example, you can find the necessary solution for Salesforce integration on Salesforce Appexchange, starting from the Salesforce data loader, up to enterprise-class systems like Informatica cloud.
Wrapping Up
Cloud CRM applications provide just the right features, flexibility, and pricing that the booming small business industry needs. They take the burden of server maintenance completely off the shoulders of non-technical business owners and allow them to focus on their core business functions with complete peace of mind.
This is why some of the world’s biggest corporations, tech startups, and even home-based small businesses are turning towards cloud CRM applications for their business needs.
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