Small Business CRM

As competition increases, software developers are focusing on developing small business CRM software. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and is the new standard for providing excellent customer service. What makes CRM for small businesses different from standard CRM packages is the affordability of the software when purchased in small quantity. CRM software is usually sold "per-seat," meaning that only a specific number of people can be using the CRM system at any given time.

CRM software developed for small business usually have feature limitations, especially in their ability to interface with corporate communication systems like Microsoft Exchange Server, IBM Lotus Notes, and Novel GroupWise. These features are available in larger-scale CRM systems that are usually more expensive.

Software developers can make small business software less expensive by using a small business database system. These less-expensive solutions include: Microsoft Access, FoxPro, Dbase, and MySQL. Most corporate business CRM solutions utilize server-based back-end database systems to store and track CRM information. Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, and Sybase are the most common database systems used for developing CRM software for large businesses. However, these systems are usually too expensive for small business customers. Most developers will allow a small business customer to upgrade their CRM software to a larger database system--allowing the small business to grow into a larger scale system over time.

One alternative available to small business is to use a hosted CRM solution. Hosted solutions (also known as ASP--Application Service Providers) is when an enterprise CRM tool is re-sold to small business customers, who are usually given a web interface to the CRM system.

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