CRM and small to medium businesses: given the very common fact of lack of established processes, together with the fact of low budgets, how can CRM be approached for small to medium businesses? I guess the solutions won't be able to go much beyond simple contact managers solutions, or are there other possibilities?

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Assuming you are looking to minimize costs, do not seek to establish formal CRM procedures, and are not looking to create a CRM infrastructure, then I would look to the low-end of the market. Products like Goldmine for example (www.frontrange.com) which used to offer basic contact management, now provides greatly expanded features and functions. It's an ideal entry point for the situation you described.

Hosted CRM is another excellent option -- see Upshot.com, Salesnet.com and Salesforce.com. The hosted (or ASP approach) can get you up-and-running in a matter of minutes with a phone call and a credit card. You will logon to a private website to access your firm's CRM services -- with no software or network to maintain.

This was first published in April 2002

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