What Salesforce.com Forgot to Tell Finance Directors About CRM [FLIP BOOK]

Salesforce.com is a market leader which has long been touted as the all-singing, all-dancing solution to every organisation’sCRM problems. But that doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for everybody.

Based on the feedback that former Saleforce customers have given, the key issues seem to be:

1. It’s not really clear what versions come with what, so some users don’t actually end up with the functionality they thought they were getting. Interestingly, a recent Gartner study found that approximately 55% of all CRM projects fail to meet customers' expectations; so companies need to make sure that they are choosing the right CRM for their business.
    
2. In order to get all the functionality they wanted from Salesforce.com, some users found they had to upgrade and stump up a lot more cash or buy add-on applications from third party suppliers.
    
3. You have to implement it yourself or pay a consultancy to do it for you – again, lots more cash required.
    
4. You don’t get training included and some people say the system isn’t intuitive and ‘Windows-like’, so it’s harder to learn.
    
5. According to some, it doesn’t integrate easily with other systems or provide an easily trackable, joined up sales, marketing, finance and customer services experience. The data you input into the system isn’t producing the reports you need: because the system only gives you a view of a narrow area of the business, not the business as a whole.

Click to view the Flip Book - 'What Salesforce.com Forgot to Tell Finance Directors' 

Guest Post:  John Cheney is the CEO of Workbooks.com, which develops Cloud CRM systems specially designed for small to medium-sized businesses. You can read more of his content on CRM technology by subscribing to the CRM Software blog. You can also find him on Google+ and Twitter.