The President of San Rafael, California-based CRM Software, Gregory T. Friedman, has announced that its CRM software, Junxure, will now have a cloud-based version, available in January.
Brooke Southall wrote in Forbes last week that Friedman made this announcement at this particular time due to the huge hype that is currently surrounding the cloud, and the lack of participation from CRM Software put the company’s leadership position in the CRM software market in question.
Southall quoted Friedman as saying, “It was hurting us because we weren’t saying anything. We weren’t looking like the market leaders because people didn’t know what we were doing,”
The cloud-based version of Junxure CRM software will reportedly not have all the functionality of the desktop version. CRM Software expect because of this, it will appeal to smaller companies, as well as businesses that want the flexibility to plug in to other vendors.
Regardless of the company size or application cloud-based CRM software has a many benefits including the fact that it is less expensive, updating it is easier, and it is more reliable than software flowing from specific servers.
Obviously announcing a product so far in advance of its launch can be risky, but most agree that it was the best thing for CRM Software to do. “I agree they had to announce it now so that folks who are shopping CRM or those current clients who want it can plan accordingly,” Technology Consultant Joel Bruckenstein, said in a statement to Forbes.
Further emphasizing that point, Bill Winterberg, principal of FPPad.com of Dallas, Texas, said, “The pressure is on Junxure to offer a cloud-based product because that’s where the majority of new applications…are headed,” in a statement.
When CRM Software launches it cloud-based version of it CRM software, Junxure, it will be joining CRM software leaders that have an established presence in the market. Among them is NetSuite, whose software solutions are already helping companies get up and running faster with the capabilities of its cloud computing business management suite—including CRM+.
Customers are finding that the cloud-based software delivers powerful customer relationship management capabilities, including sales force automation (SFA), marketing automation, customer support and service and flexible customization in a web-based CRM solution.
As Joel Brukenstein intimated, customers are currently shopping for CRM software solutions. They want a solution that includes powerful sales performance, order management and marketing effectiveness capabilities, as standard.
Other things that companies should look for when researching a cloud-based CRM solution is one that is seamlessly integrated with the back office—order management, fulfillment and financials— to reduce manual entry and risk of error, and to accelerate processes.
CRM shoppers will also want a solution that allows them real-time visibility into their customer lifecycle—from lead to close to fulfillment, from anywhere at any time.
Linda Dobel is a TMCnet Contributor. She has been an editor in the contact center space for more than 25 years, and has the distinction of being the founding editor of Customer Inter@ction Solutions (CIS) magazine. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Jamie Epstein