The Secret is Out - CRM is SME's Best Option

Although there are many definitions of SME's there is no globally accepted definition of a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). In CRM terms small enterprises often average around 200 customers. Medium enterprises are ones that handle almost 500 customers. SME's could also mean a consultant working from home or the small enterprise catering to its 100 employees, right through to the 1000 enterprise workforce.

CRM for SMEs - Is it Lucrative?

The common perception is that small to medium businesses have very little options in terms of CRM solutions. About 5 percent alone of Indian SMEs have adopted CRM. This is clearly not the case. SME's now have a lot of options and can exercise them.

The fundamental problem of SME's is their inability to capture sufficient customer information. Individual customer information is seldom if never captured. Despite measuring the revenue per customer, SME's fail to measure the profit and satisfaction per customer. Customer satisfaction and customer requirements are seldom taken into consideration.

What motivates SMEs to play the CRM tune? Better customer service levels, globalization, higher profitability, competition is the answer. What are the options available to them? Options for SME's include such vendors like Goldmine for example which basically offers software that has new additional features and is highly suitable for SME's. Customer relationship management also has offers Hosted CRM as another good option for which SMEs can turn to vendors like Salesnet.com and Salesforce.com etc.

SME Market is Soaring

According to CRM research the staggering statistics show that the U.S alone has almost 30 million users. Wondering what SME's use to measure customer information? Well there is a lot of debate about that. Sales Force seems to dominate the pack though with almost 40% of SMEs opting for it. SME's are constantly striving to better their market share and yearn to enter their big sister playground. SME's now seek customer-oriented approaches rather than product oriented ones. Adjustments made to large enterprise solutions -basically stripping them down so that they facilitate easy use by SME's is no longer a wise option since SME's walk down a path alone. These solutions seldom address the individual problems of SME's.

The requirements of an SME CRM software solution is easy installment, less technical resources, ease of integration, reliability and scalability. Due to their scalability and easy adaptability ASP and hosted applications model for CRM are expected to gain ground with the SME sector. The industry hotties are all geared up to cater to SME's CRM requirements. Microsoft for instance has resolved to commit to better CRM solutions for SME's. Vendors are busy localizing products and making hosted services affordable to SME's.

What's New?

SME's Opt for Hosted Solutions

Since most companies want quick returns on their investments they are opting to go in for the hosted solution option. The advantage here is the quick-return scenario. In this respect the application and data are hosted and managed by a third party. The customer has only to make use of the CRM service through a browser or front-end application.

The most lucrative market for hosted solutions is easily the SME market. The benefit for the SME of hosted solutions is that users can access their CRM package via Internet from anywhere. It can also be integrated into a company's website. It is designed basically with the purpose of providing customers with a customer-centric experience.

The biggest difficulties SME's face is the lack of sufficient technology, skilled employees and IT personnel. Due to this SME's are not able to implement costly products. SMEs need to opt for business strategies that basically cater to their needs and look to phased implementation for better benefits. If SME's are looking at minimal costs then establishing a full fledged CRM infrastructure is not the answer. They need to adopt CRM software that basically fulfill CRM objectives, is customer centric and supports existing business strategies in order to achieve profitability.

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