Currently, renting CRM software is increasingly welcoming and easy to use. In this case, suppliers dedicated to the development of enterprise software have also begun to re-examine and consider their way and strategies that should take on the target market.
With the prosperity of Internet applications, the Application Service Provider (ASP) model also came into being, and claims that the company can effectively change the use of software for software. However, the recession in the technology market inevitably leads to important plans to be in trouble. In addition, the first generation of application service providers exaggerate their words advocated their techniques, and the feasible software model did not develop maturity. Despite this, the management concept of "software as a service" is gradually formed in the CRM system of the enterprise.
"Traditional software needs to be re-designed," Phill Robinson, vice president of European market, said: "As you intend to build a hotel, you don't need to consider the construction of power station or sewage treatment plant. We will enterprises The software you need is provided by the Internet as a service. "
Hosted CRM (CRM Renting Way) allows companies to use their browser to use the function of enterprise software. Such service providers often offer all of their infrastructure and application software using a data center, and users can easily access applications using the Internet. After the host and the customer server, this Internet-based service model has been recognized as the third wave of software delivery.
For many high costs that are deployed by business software, the lengthy steps are troubled by companies, Hosted CRM methods are attractive.
"In the past few years, traditional CRM implementation has always been awarded," Salesforce.com's Robinson said: "A CRM program is too complicated, and the appropriate infrastructure must be selected, and the guidance of professional consultants must be obtained; otherwise Many plans cannot get the correct configuration at the end. "
Traditional ways to purchase CRM software must be sold through license. The Gartner Working Group 2003 a survey report pointed out that 42% of the CRM licenses sold in 2002 were in an idle state, and it was expected to cause a serious waste of $ 1.2 billion.
The Hosted CRM software vendor claims that it provides an optional purchase model for effective reduction of waste, that is, the company obtains the appropriate application rights by purchasing a license. This can ensure that the company avoids more costs to pay for unwanted licenses.
At present, Hosted CRM is generally welcomed by users. For example, Salesforce.com served as a leader of Hosted CRM, as of December last year, has signed 120,000 users, the company's software is being used by 8,400 companies; under this development trend, the company is scheduled In 2004, the first public disclosure (IPO) was worthy of people's expectations.
The Hosted CRM method even has a profound impact on the call center market. For example: Rightnow Technologies dedicated to call center solution market aimed at traditional software vendors (such as: Clarify and Vantive).
"Our company is the only CRM company that is completely committed to customer service," RightNow President and CEO Greg Gianforte said: "Our product's basic performance includes business representative desktop, analysis, CTI integration Effective connection to the legacy application, facing the customer's components, as well as email routing. "
Some companies that provide Hosted CRM services advocate the use of license ordering modes, GianForte does not agree with this approach. He said: "Salesforce.com, providing host services, is based on its sales and service, but we don't do this. After all, this mode is impossible to serve customers." According to statistics, 70% Rightnow users have a 2-year license right, only 10% of users pay the license usage fee.
Successful Hosted CRM software models have attracted people extensively in the field of corporate CRM software. At present, many traditional software suppliers have also begun to tries to provide managed services. For example, in 2002 BT (British Telecom) established its own call center using the Siebel and Aspect's call center. However, due to many obstacles, enterprise software suppliers cannot fully enter the hosting market, and their root cause is that their integrated software is not designed for managed delivery.
CRM market leader Siebel Systems plans to change this status quo. At the end of last year, Siebel and IBM and BT have developed their CRM on-demand service products (CRM ONDEMAND) and decided to use the product exclusively in the hosted market. Tom Siebel, founder and CEO of Siebel, pointed out: In the next two years, up to 15% of CRM sales will be carried out in the way applications lease.
"Our goal is to strive to become the first large enterprise software that adopts this model," said Neil Morgan, the Siebel European Market Sales.
Siebel's CRM ONDEMAND product sets the target market as a lower end market. "We are not only committed to solving the 100,000 customers of wealth, but to use this product to open up a broader target market," Morgan said: "Our existing customers are also very interested in CRMs, they are even considered Users who have not deployed Siebel Enterprise Software are recommended to use rental products to effectively expand CRM services. People use these softwares only takes about 1 hour a day, relatively, the cost of each corporate software is much more expensive. "
Despite the use of software rental methods to inevitably take up a budget of enterprise software products, Siebel believes that this is an inevitable result of the wider open market. The CRM based on IBM WebSphere is based on demand service, providing a new service concept for traditional Siebel software; at the same time, the user interface and personalization settings are capable of user-friendly and work.
Siebel has decided not to participate in the managed market, more inclined to partners with some companies and to get part of the deposit fees. This provides a thinking for mixed CRM delivery, one company can have two CRM products (on-demand CRM products and predetermined CRM products), and users of these two products can access the same dynamic data.
With Siebel and IBM to enter the Hosted CRM market, there is no doubt that will lead to competition in the CRM application market. Its most important impact is that the rental mode is a viable option for CRM deployment has been recognized by the market. Yankee Group analyst Sheryl Kingstone expects that Siebel will become a leading enterprise in the Hosted CRM market in the next two years.
Driving the Hosted CRM service is a feasible CRM deployment, its key technology is to fully utilize Web services, allowing the leaser to make effective integration of their products with their products. At the same time, Salesforce.com also created a application server platform called Sforce, as part of the Internet service, enabling companies to customize products or create extensions based on their special needs.
Obviously, the Hosted CRM does not exist for a proof of whether the ASP model can provide good service. When companies start CRM deployment, Hosted CRM is undoubtedly the most valuable choice.
