Haphazard development
Customers who assign crm software development to experts may have no idea of all that lies behind development. They may not have a clear idea of what to include and which parts to leave out. Developers may be given just a rough idea of what is needed. If they proceed with crm application development without proper planning and precise understanding of what would actually work for the client, they are in for a lot of rework. Customers may keep changing mind and ask for modules to be removed or for others to added in which escalates costs and time. Developers who know about this will define scope and give customers a precise idea of what can be done and what is necessary.
Ongoing reporting
Some CRM developers will get to work straightaway and present clients with a finished product only to find that clients will raise issues. The accepted method is to keep clients informed through weekly reports and get their confirmation that the development is on track according to their needs.
Mobile and cloud
Not including mobile and cloud technologies would be a big mistake for CRM development given that the end use dictates easy access by authorized personnel using their mobiles in order to serve customers better. Customers must choose developers who can offer cloud and mobile integration as well as porting to other packages like IVR, ecommerce, lead management, financials and accounting. If mobile and cloud integration are necessary so is social media and ignoring it sort of cripples the CRM functionality.
Integrating sales and marketing
One of the main functions of CRM is to manage the marketing and sales processes. Marketing and sales may run in parallel and also converge so clients who retain experts in CRM custom developments should insist on optimizing these modules that will help them better manage leads as well as carry out marketing activities with the two meshing together where needed.
Then there are other minor but nonetheless important things such as not taking adequate care to ensure integrity of databases and archiving them as well as including too many fields that can bloat data.
Users must know that a custom CRM application is far better than a standard package and it can actually cost less. Customers must not assume that developers know what is needed and will give them a package that delivers results. Developers of CRM packages must know that their clients may not know about technical issues and it is for them to make suitable suggestions and inclusions as well as exclusions in the package for it to work and deliver measurable results.
