The businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are very adoptive towards the modern technologies and software solutions. Basically the software and digital tools are used to improve the business management. The enterprise software solutions are designed to improve internal processes and business functions. When a business have software solutions and digital tools in place, they can produce more outcome with less input. The input here is workforce, resources, etc. and the outcome is better performance, good quality products & services, customer satisfaction and business growth. A present day work environment is very much dependent on software solutions and digital tools. Whether you are a startup, a small business, a large enterprise or a government or private organization, you must require a combination of software solutions and digital tools that will support your daily operations. That is why businesses keep investing in their IT infrastructure and digital assets. When it comes to acquiring a new software, the managers always have to choose carefully because their decision could have long lasting impact on the business and the relevant business processes.
What is the difference between off-the-shelf and customized software?
We have asked several business representatives (including managers and owners) about how do they decide which software solution is best from them. Everyone had a lot of different opinions, but one thing that was common among them all was that the software must have to meet their all needs and it should be able to satisfy its users. Another most important aspect that these people consider is the initial deployment and long term operational cost of the software solutions. There are two major classifications of the software, one is commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and the second is the customized software solutions. Both are completely different from each other, the COTS are the software that are designed for mass users and are universal for all the businesses. It means many businesses use them. However, the custom software development means a tailor-made software solution that is built and designed exclusively for a particular user group and is used by only a single business. Another major difference is that the commercial off-the-shelf software are owned by the software development company or service provider, however, the custom software are exclusively designed for a business and owned by the business as well. The custom software development company doesn’t own them. In this blog we will discuss how a customized CRM software is better than the commercial off-the-shelf CRM solution.
What is a CRM Software?
The CRM stands for customer relationship management. Traditionally the customer relationship management is a strategy and methodology to organize and manage customer data which can help customer relationship agents or service staff to build a good relationship with the customers and serve them better with a satisfactory customer experience. Earlier this was started as a manual process, the customer data is stored on papers and organized in offices manually. But later with the development of the digital solutions and implementation of IT infrastructure the CRM or customer relationship management have also transformed. The CRM software or customer relationship management software is a digital tool that help businesses to improve their customer relationship management processes, strategies and methodologies. Another important thing to understand is that the customer relationship management itself have evolved a lot, and now a days the process have become very sophisticated and complex, that is why a proper software framework is much needed to improve the customer relationship management processes.
Why customized CRM software solutions are better than the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions?
The custom software development and the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions both have their own pros and cons. It is not that the commercial off-the-shelf software are just bad and can’t offer any value. In fact the commercial off-the-shelf software are quicker to deploy, have low initial cost and can offer great usability in certain areas. However, a CRM or customer relationship management is a very dynamic and business function. It has to be up-to-date to meet the ever changing customer needs. Businesses also keep changing their customer relationship management policies and strategies and the CRM software should be able to cater to their needs. The customized CRM software are very flexible and can be designed exclusively to meet the very specific business needs. Here is a quick comparison of the commercial off-the-shelf CRM software and a customized customer relationship management software. It will help you understand the additional benefits of a custom CRM which make it superior from the COTS.
Custom CRM Software Development Thoroughly Meets the Needs of the Business
The commercial off-the-shelf software or COTS are designed for a wider range of audience, they follow the general industry standards and market trends. Whereas each business is different from the others, no matter if two businesses belongs to same industry niche, still the internal environment, organizational culture and various business processes would be different form the others. The COTS usually came in various packages or subscription plans, each plan have a certain number and type of features, if you want more features you will have to pay more. Sometimes businesses found themselves in a position where they will have to purchase an upgraded plan just for a few features. The costing structure varies from one to another service provider, however, it is always very difficult to find a perfect match of all the requirements. The custom CRM software on the other hand offer full compatibility with the business needs. No matter what features business wants they will only have to pay for what they will be needing and nothing else. This also means that the payment and costing structure is always more flexible with the custom software development.
Customized CRM Software Improves and Aligns with Internal Workflows
Another great advantage of the customer software development is that it help improving the internal processes and workflows. Most of the time the commercial off-the-shelf software are designed for the mass audiences hence they are designed with certain features and follow standard workflows. However, in reality every business have different internal processes and environment that is also what makes a brand unique and it can provide a great competitive advantage too. When a business deploy a commercial off-the-shelf software they also have to follow the workflows and processes of that CRM software. Which requires them to rearrange and modify their internal processes. The customer relationship management software (CRM) have huge impact on how the business deals with its customers, and how they serve them. If you start following the very same way your competitors are following, then what unique value will you offer them to attract them toward your business? Nothing! That is one of the biggest drawback of using a commercial off-the-shelf CRM.
That is why the customized customer relationship management software (CRM) is far superior in this regard and can offer a great competitive advantage. The customized CRMs doesn’t require businesses to later or modify their internal processes, methodologies and workflows. In fact the customized software are designed as per the internal processes and workflows. That is why the businesses usually witness a significant rise in efficiency and productivity after implementing a customized customer relationship management software (CRM). The customized CRM aligns with internal environment, doesn’t push employees to follow certain methods, but help them improve their efficiency and productivity with their existing methods and workflows. It help refining the internal processes and brings automation which reduce employees’ workload and maximize their administrative capabilities. The customized customer relationship management software (CRM) provides a great competitive advantage as what software and features you are using are not being used by any other.
Custom CRM Software Offers Customized UIs and Excellent UX
The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions often offer a universal UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) to all of the businesses who are using their CRM software. If businesses want to customize the user interface or want to make changes to improve user experience as per their users’ preferences and needs, most of the time they can’t do it. And even if the commercial off-the-shelf software vendor offer them the customization, it is very limited and it is way too expensive. That is what can limit the efficiency of the system. However, with the custom CRM software development businesses can have whatever type of UI they want and they also have full control over the UX. Which can significantly improve the user-friendliness of the CRM software and maximizes its efficiency. Furthermore the businesses also want to minimize the training efforts when they deploy a new system. For that they try to align the new UIs and UXs with their existing systems. This not only help them reducing the training cost but it also help them integrating the system within the existing environment very quickly. Sometimes businesses also have multiple different user groups, and each one of them need a slightly different UI. Only the customized CRM development can offer such level of customization and control over UI and Ux.
Customized CRM Software Offers Better Adoptability and Future Readiness
These days the customer relationship management have become more dynamic. The customer behavior, market trends and several other factors can quickly change a lot of things, which will force a business to adopt to the new changes to ensure excellent customer experience and better customer interaction. A commercial off-the-shelf CRM software requires a lot of time to adopt to new changes, the upgrades and updates are fewer and costly. Sometimes the new upgrades completely discard certain features and replace them with the new ones, which also force the businesses to implement new processes and workflows. However the customized CRM software are completely in your control, businesses can upgrade them whenever they want and however they want. If they want to add a feature, they don’t have to effect any other existing process, if they want to upgrade only a certain features that is doable too. In short the custom software development allow businesses to have full control over their customized CRM software. Hence the future readiness of customized CRM and adoptability to the new changes is much higher comparing to the commercial off-the-shelf CRM software.
Customized CRM Software Offers Easier Integration with Third-Party Software and Tools
The modern business are heavily relying on data and information technology. The daily tasks and workflows are relying on sharing information between several employees and departments on very frequent bases. That requires the digital and IT infrastructure to be integrated with each other. A business usually uses several software solutions, enterprise tools, and databases. Some of them are linked with each other and some are isolated. For example, the sales system data and the customer information data must be linked to understand the sales properly. However, the manufacturing management system doesn’t require any inputs from the digital marketing team and so on. The CRM or customer relationship management software may also not require any input from the manufacturing management system, but it must be linked with the customer data base, sales database and also with the marketing department.
That is done either by integrating the CRM with the central information center which holds all the data, or either this can be achieved by integrating it with all relevant systems one by one. With the commercial off-the-shelf solutions the business usually doesn’t have any control over its programing or source code, or even if they have they have very limited control. Which could complicate the integration process and in some cases due to such barriers the integration is not possible at all. However, that is not the case with the custom software development. The customized CRMs are very flexible towards the integration and provide full control over the core of the software, which enable the businesses to easily integrate the CRM with other internal software and databases. The integration can be done to access the data or it can also be done to store the data in another database or central information center. The integration with and from custom software is also very less expensive.
Custom CRM Software Development Offers Better Scalability
The custom CRM software development provides businesses with full ownership right to the software and its source code. This means that the software is exclusively designed for the businesses and will also remain unique to that business. There would be no other copy sold to any other business. However, the COTS are totally opposite, the same commercial off-the-shelf software can be sold to hundreds and even thousands of businesses all around the world. Most of the time the vendor or service provider sell the software in form of different packages or plans with different level of usability, features and even restricted number of users. A business always keep growing, in fact the prime goal of a business is to grow. As a business progress its users will increase, its needs will increase and it might require a lot of customization and upgrades to handle more work. The commercial off-the-shelf software also offer the same but with limited scope and much higher cost. A customized CRM doesn’t have a lot of such costs attached to it, it is a one-time cost. If a business needs upgrades, or want to add more users or features they can do that without any additional cost or a very little customization cost. Hence the customized CRM are more scalable then the COTS.
Custom CRM Software Offers Better Security
A customer relationship management software or CRM holds very sensitive and important data. That data has to be protected at all cost. It is not just about the data privacy it is about the reputation of the brand. We have witnessed several businesses who got destroyed by data breaches and data leaks. Because if a customer knows that their personal data is not protected with an enterprise, they stop doing business with them. It also destroy the reputation of the business as people will think if a business is unable to protect their data that mean it doesn’t care about its customers much. The commercial off-the-shelf CRM software are produced for masses and distributed all around the world. Which make their structure more accessible for the internet pirates. However, the customized CRM software is designed by a software development agency such as RSI Concepts and the software is only provided to one client.
This means that no one else knows about the structure of the software, and very few people can have access to the server. Only that alone is enough to ensure good security. The customized CRM software are completely hidden from internet pirates and such people which means it is harder to track and attack your CRM system. With added security features the customized CRM become far more protected than the commercial off-the-shelf CRM software. The security features are usually added on the server, and in case of the customized CRM software, only very few people can have access to that server. Furthermore the customer data and any other valuable data that is stored or linked with the custom CRM software is also stored on the local databases or servers. Even if you deploy the custom CRM software on an online hosting or cloud, the data will still remain under your authority. No one can have access to the server other than the authorized people. Hence the custom CRM software provides higher level of security and data privacy.
Custom CRM Software Offers Full Ownership
The commercial off-the-self software are developed by a vendor or service provider. The COTS are developed for large-scale distribution and are not exclusively built for a single business. This means that the business doesn’t own their CRM, in fact they either rent it out or subscribe to it. As soon as they stop paying, they will lose the software or they will lose the ability to get support, upgrades, etc. However, the customized customer relationship management software (CRM) are exclusively designed for a particular business, and that means the software will never be given to any other business. The customized CRM or any other product of custom software development is owned by the user (business) and not by the software development agency or vendor. Usually businesses outsource custom software development or hire an internal team to develop the customized CRM software for them. Either way the business will get full ownership rights to the custom CRM software. That have several benefits such as the business will have to bear only one-time cost, they system can be customized and maintained by any outsourcing partner or in-house team, there is no dependency on a particular software developer. Usually the customized CRM software are made using open-source technologies, how developers are easily available all the time, and almost any software development agency can offer service and customization of the product, which makes custom CRM software very cost-efficient too.
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Conclusion
The customer relationship management (CRM) software is one of the most important part of any business’s success strategy. The customer relationships define the level of satisfaction your customer have. The customer relationship management is a strategy, method or technique to improve relationship with your customers and raise their happiness and satisfaction. Strong bond with your customer means higher customer loyalty and the loyal customers are considered to be a precious asset of any business. The loyal customers tend to be a good brand advocate and help building positive brand image. The loyal customers also tend to do repeated purchases and help businesses generate more revenue. According to several studies and market research it is 5 to 25 times more expensive acquiring a new customer than selling to an existing customers. That is why the customer loyalty can make a huge difference and that is the reason why customer relationship management is so important for any business. When it comes to customer relationship management, the CRM software is the backbone of any customer relationship strategy.
Businesses can acquire two types of customer relationship management software (CRM), the commercial off-the-shelf solution and the customized CRM software. Either types or classes are completely different from each other. In this blog we have discussed the key benefits of going for a customized CRM software development. If a business wants a long term and cost-effective solution to meet their customer relationship management needs, then the customized CRM software is the best way to go forward. RSI Concepts is a leading custom software development company in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the customized CRM software and solutions or if you want us to help you with building a highly effective, user-friendly, tailor-made and customized CRM software for you, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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