What's the best CRM software for a midmarket sales force?
I'm the CIO for a midsized supermarket chain. We have 75 sales reps. From what I understand about SAP's on-demand CRM product, it is designed for companies with at least 100 customer-facing sales agents. Does that mean it's not a good candidate for a company like mine? Should we be looking at other solutions? Can you suggest a short list?

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SAP CRM on demand is suitable for an small or midsized business (SMB) like your company. I am not aware of any limitations on the number of minimum users need to implement SAP CRM on demand.

I know of a SMB that implemented on-premise SAP CRM for 30 end users where the implementation cost was many times more than the costs for an on-demand SAP CRM implementation. One benefit of the SAP CRM on demand solution is that it is available to customers on a per-user, per-month pricing program based on pre-defined scope. The list price starts at $75/month/user and it doesn't lock you into long-term contractual obligations. On-premise SAP CRM licensing is based on the number of users annually which is a static licensing policy. It doesn't offer the flexibility of adjusting the users and using a pay-as-you-use pricing structure.

Additionally, on-premise SAP CRM implementations are complex and consume more man labor -- months of implementation times and sometimes the involvement of external consultants, which both add to the implementation costs. SAP CRM on demand, which is Software as a Service (SaaS), can be installed quickly and implemented much faster than SAP CRM on premise. I think you have the right number of end users to take advantage of SAP CRM on demand if that is the direction you want to take.

This was first published in July 2006

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