How much does a CRM system cost?

If you have ever bought a new car, then it will not be a revelation for you that things ultimately cost much more than the amount that was on the price tag and even the cash register receipt. But for some reason such an experience is completely forgotten when a business decides to implement a CRM system or any other corporate software. And a series of surprises, trials and disputes begins - why so many when there were so many in the calculator on the site ?! "You're lying to me! You wind up! I have no money! Yes, the CFO will kill me! Yes, this is the budget of Liechtenstein! Are you crazy ?! ”No, not crazy. On the contrary, they sat down and wrote sensibly for you what was what.

Initial check for lice

If we talk about the CRM-system in an abstract way, without being tied to vendors and types of business, we can identify several criteria that any system should meet - only if all three features are present can it be of value to the business. That is the very value for which you pay.

1. “Maintainability” - the ability to be modified by the forces of a vendor or other contractor efficiently, quickly and without damage to the surrounding functionality. This property directly depends on the quality of the program code: if it is clean and logically structured, then the system is easily configured, updated and updated. And you should not worry, we are talking about a cloud or desktop system. The developer is responsible for the quality of his product.
   
2. Capacity - the system should correspond to your needs in the volume of records (number of customers, transactions, etc.). Be sure to discuss with the vendor the loads that are expected in daily work, and the total planned volume of the client base.
   
3. Delivery times for the system. Abroad, the approximate normative period for introducing the system is 17 months, but at the same time, systems capable of starting even on large projects in 3 to 6 months fall into the top ratings and recommendations of Gartner and Forrester. Delaying the deadlines is not at hand for anyone, but it is worthwhile to agree on a reasonable limit with the vendor - if you need everything at once, then most likely the developer will make every effort, but it will come out much more expensive. Nevertheless, rational and reasonable requirements are a guarantee of a reasonable price.
   

The CRM vendor, who is ready to answer you on all three points, is most likely able to offer software that you can continue to talk about.

Mandatory terms

So, you decided to implement CRM. First you need to evaluate the main factors affecting the cost of the project.

The number of users is perhaps the first thing to count. The most common mistake is to equate the number of licenses to the number of employees in the sales department. Yes, there are CRM systems for sales, but there are complex solutions that provide the so-called end-to-end automation: from secretary to warehouse and production (for example, in RegionSoft CRMyou can choose the configuration you need and automate several units at once). In any case, you should inform the heads of departments about the implementation and collect the requirements: most often, marketing, logistics, technical support, and even an IT service are interested in the CRM system. Do not forget to count the leaders, they will be nodal users and coordinators of implementation and work in the system.

Please note that some CRM systems provide for the delivery of competitive licenses (for connections) - in this case, “unoccupied” licenses can be used by other employees while their colleagues work on the road. Also, such a scheme is suitable for companies working in shifts (call centers) and for those workers who do not constantly contact CRM (for example, the analyst only needs to upload data 2 times a month and he can apply to any free license). There is a nuance: some vendors supply only competitive licenses (for example, RegionSoft ), and some sell them at a higher price along with the nominal ones - pay attention to this when calculating the cost of implementation.

The need for remote connection to the CRM-system and mobile access. If mobile licenses are most often supplied free of charge, the remote access option for desktop CRM systems slightly increases the cost. Remote access is the ability to connect to CRM in terminal mode via RDP. It is very convenient if you need to connect to the database from a laptop and any mobile device - in fact, you work in the familiar interface. Starting with 5 '' displays, there are no special problems when using systems.

The necessary package of functions is perhaps the most difficult part. We will not tell you in detail how to collect requirements and accumulate all the information about the needs of departments - our articles and schemes help you:

Implementation article - a complete algorithm
Article on how to fail implementation
What is a CRM system?

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Download the implementation scheme (without registration, the download will begin immediately)
Download the full article on the implementation (without registration, the download will begin immediately)

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Note the main points that you should pay attention to, so that the cost of implementing CRM is optimal.

• After you collect the requirements, process them - select the general ones, agree on compromises, identify the main processes that automation will affect. The more unsystematic and abstract the requirements passed to the vendor, the more expensive the implementation can be.
  
• Requirements must always be collected - this will help you choose the right system configuration. The “wrap it all” principle works poorly here - extra features when using the system will annoy users and increase the cost of licenses. For example, if you do not have a warehouse and production, it is better to give preference to RegionSoft CRM Professional / Professional Plus, but not Enterprise, which in essence is already an ERP system.
  
• Do not order a revision just for the sake of ordering or because it seems to you that you will need a function sometime. If you are not sure that you urgently need functionality, work in the system for a while - perhaps the basic set of features will cover all your needs.
  

Refinement is the most important part of the implementation project. If you need to refine the CRM-system, then it is best to do it with the help of a vendor. In this case, you will have to pay for the development of technical specifications (why it is paid, we already wrote) and for the hours of work of programmers. Some companies believe that they are the most cunning, and save on refinement, turning to freelancers. In fact, the avaricious pays twice: a freelancer may not be able to cope with the task or give crutches in the code - in this case, the system may collapse and damage the business (by the way, read our mini-investigation about freelancers). The vendor, however, is well-versed in his system and works out quickly and efficiently, since it is neither economically nor reputably beneficial for CRM-workers to delay work or to redo it again later.

Integration is another point that should be considered when calculating the cost of implementing CRM. Almost no CRM system can “out of the box” contain integration with all the necessary services: someone does not even have integration with mail and telephony. Therefore, check with the vendor what types of applications and for what money you can connect, because there are options.

• We need integration with third-party services, for example, telephony, virtual telephone exchange, website, 1C, etc. As a rule, it is paid, since each company has its own wishes for integration parameters. By the way, if you are told that integration with 1C is available in the base package - do not believe it. The maximum that you receive is the exchange of data in manual or automatic mode. Real integration is a rather specific and time-consuming process. The same story with telephony - each company has its own preferences in choosing a virtual PBX and provider. Sometimes a CRM system is quite tightly tied to an IP telephony provider (this is beneficial for vendors). In this case, you will have to include communication tariffs in the price of owning the system. But it is better to avoid such bundles - tariffs can be significantly higher than the market average.
  
• We need integration with literally everything except the most basic CRM functions: with an email client, with a telephony service, with a chat, with a warehouse system, with a project management system and even with reports. SaaS-systems adhere to such policies, which supposedly provide the client with complete freedom of choice of configuration: from widgets (third-party applications), you can assemble a CRM-system as a constructor. However, this option with apparent convenience is not "Do not pay for too much", but "Pay for everything connected." This means that in addition to paying the vendor for the cloud system, you will pay all widget providers (sometimes 50-150 rubles per widget per month, but in the end + to the monthly fee). There are statistics that third-party add-ons make up from 10 to 35% of the cost of software, or even more. There is one more minus:
  
• We need specific integration: scheduled data exchange with 1C, information collection from the company’s website via web-forms, telephony scripts, etc. In this case, it is necessary to lay a budget for the development of integration services or for the purchase of special solutions. For example, we often solved the same tasks for business and eventually came to the creation of RegionSoft Application Server and   RegionSoft VoIP Connector . With their help, you can solve a huge number of integration problems and significantly expand the capabilities of the CRM-system.
  

Who should buy a CRM system from?

According to global CRM best practices, the ratio of the cost of the software itself and implementation services lies in the range from 1: 0.5 to 1: 2.5. The cost of the project is also affected by the person you order the implementation from - you do not need to be an economist to understand that each link in the chain is hungry for profit, and the more links there are, the more you overpay.

• The cheapest option is to contact the vendor directly. In the courtyard of the XXI century and any vendor is able to implement the project remotely using a set of technologies. Accordingly, if there is no language barrier and the vendor works for your region, feel free to work directly.
  
• Slightly more expensive or as much will cost you the introduction of a vendor partner. As a rule, partners adhere to the base rates of the vendor and share the income with the developer, earning on additional services, for example, on completion, training, tuning.
  
• But franchisees are no longer quite partners and can give a commercial margin when selling licenses and implementation. As a rule, they provide a full range of services and technical support. Franchisees can also offer their work or the development of other companies.
  
• It’s even more expensive to contact a system integrator. True, this option is more suitable not for small and medium, but for large businesses, which require the presence of contractor representatives on the company's territory and comprehensive automation: from the purchase of servers or a place in the cloud to training and the creation of special instructions. In addition, not all CRM systems are implemented through system integrators.
  
• The most expensive option is to implement the project with the help of a freelancer. With a high degree of probability you will have to contact the vendor to resolve the problems that arise during the work of the freelancer. Thus, you will take up more time for the developers (you have to figure out what freelance tyzhprogramisty were there for you), which will be included in the bill.
  
• Separately, there is the option of independent implementation. This is a completely justifiable way if you have a good system administrator or programmer who is versed in business features. In this case, you can save on installation and configuration, and even to a certain extent on completion. The only thing you should not save on is training, because the vendor’s experience will allow you to walk not just through the product, but also through typical pain points, knowing which reduces the likelihood of annoying and stupid mistakes and thereby saves time and nerves.
  

Types of delivery of CRM systems

In the Russian market there are a lot of players of different levels, qualities, experience, etc. They offer solutions that differ in everything: from functionality to the destination. And all this is called CRM, because, alas, there is no GOST for what can be called a CRM system. Let's start with the first and in many ways the main difference - the type of delivery.

Between the earth and the clouds

• Desktop CRM - CRM-systems that are installed on the main north and on the workstations of workers as an application. They can be used locally even if there is no Internet connection, and the application itself is launched from the disk of the working PC. The main advantage is the ability to work without a network and a high level of system data security.
  
• WEB CRM - CRM systems that can have a central repository inside the company or on a third-party server, and access is provided through a web browser (users open the application as a tab and work). This type of software is capable of being sensitive to the presence and speed of an Internet connection; in general, it is less secure than desktop software.
  
• Cloud CRM - CRM-systems, the central storage of which is located in the cloud of the provider (rarely - the vendor itself), and user applications are available in the browser. They are extremely sensitive to the quality of the Internet, less resistant to cyber threats less than others, but they unfold (but do not tune in and do not start working!) In the literal sense of the word in 5-10 minutes.
  

Are you sure that the movement of data to the clouds happens exactly like this?

Accordingly, in the modern market it is customary to single out two main delivery models for CRM systems (and other software).

1. On premise - the software is installed on the territory and at the facilities (computers, servers, workstations) of the company, payment is made at one time (pay once for the project), according to the SaaS model (software is provided for rent), by installments (you pay for the single software amount, but in several discrete payments). Software after purchase belongs to you.
   
2. SaaS - service (CRM or other software) is provided as a service, that is, for rent and is located either on the company's facilities or on the servers of providers, data centers, data centers. Now the most common cloud SaaS, because it is easy to deploy and profitable for the vendor due to subscription fees. When renting software as a service, you pay for it, like for the Internet or mobile communications. Software in this case does not belong to you.
   

Which circuit is better? Objectively, a definite answer cannot be given. For example, for a startup that does not know where it will be after the new year, it is better to choose a cloud and SaaS. In general, cloud technologies are advancing brilliantly as a marketing chip, so they are often bought for just one reason: "it's fashionable, I read." And these marketing costs are justified - because the cloud is beneficial to the supplier. If you open the price tags of CRM-systems, then the price of the cloud in comparison with the desktop seems more than reasonable. But this is not even a trick, but a very ordinary marketing illusion.

For example, the cheapest RegionSoft CRM licensecosts 7050 p., and from a well-known cloud competitor - 990 p. It's 7 times cheaper, what questions! But there is a nuance - 7050 p. this is only once per user and for a lifetime (by the way, now this figure is even less - we have a New Year's promotion ), and 990 p. - per user per month. Moreover, according to international and Russian practice, the tenure of a CRM-system in a normal “tenacious” company is 5-10 years. And the cost of owning a SaaS CRM system is growing in proportion to the number of months.

Let's try to draw all this on the chart and explain a bit. This is really interesting!


For comparison, we took the popular CRM-system, which has one of the lowest prices on the market in the “basic” configuration and RegionSoft CRM in the Standard Plus edition with the option. remote access and report designer in order to get approximately functionally close solutions. In this graph you see the accumulated cost of ownership of the CRM-system for five years without taking into account the improvements and those. support. And if the cost is comparable in the first year, then the SaaS solution will cost you 4.5 times more by the fifth year. And this despite the fact that we included in the price of RegionSoft an update for the major version (about once every two years).


And on this graph you see annual payments, and for the SaaS version we took the option without a potential increase in the cost of rent (which will certainly happen in 5 years).

By the way, if you decide to deal with SaaS CRM, then pay attention to the fact that vendors rarely offer a contract for a monthly payment - most often, we are talking about a contract for a year in advance. Thus, the advantage “I can change CRM if I do not like it” turns out to be illusory, especially under the pressure of discounts on this same annual contract. And then they will offer you an extension with a discount from the new price (consider, at the old price, but already without a discount), and then they will come up with something else. Nothing strange, just a business.

Free cheese and small mousetraps

Speaking about the supply of CRM-systems, you can not ignore the free system. They also have a price and are also divided into two types.

Let's start with a less significant view - free CRMs as a marketing tool . The vendor provides absolutely free licenses with a lot of restrictions. The calculation is this: sooner or later the company will surely run into a lack of functionality or restrictions on users, records in the database, etc. At the same time, the company already has part of its client base in the system, employees are used to the interface, and some important settings have been made. Naturally, the only way out is to switch to paid licenses without restrictions. Such is the marketing of slow motion.

The second type of free CRM systems - open source. These are systems and forks of systems that are offered for free (free) use. Since these systems are backed by development companies and developed communities, these CRMs are quite functional. But we are still talking about business, not charity, which means that the business behind the open source needs to earn money. So, what money do you subscribe to by openingource:

• Paid technical support for the vendor, one-time and batch. When deploying an open-source project, you will never manage to support the community on your own, which means you will have to pay for contacting the company. It is technical support along with revision that makes up the main source of income for open source projects vendors.
  
• Revision. For example, if you use a fork of a foreign CRM system, you will definitely need modules related to the Russian document flow, primary documentation and integration with 1C.
  
• Refinement and development on your own - in this case, you will have to pay for the work of a freelancer or programmer in the state.
  
• Licensing problems - this is the rarest situation, but it still happens. You can get a payment related to the commercial use of a non-commercial project (if, for example, you charge a fee for using your personal account in CRM from your partners). Well, of course, there will definitely be difficulties if you refine CRM and decide to sell it as your fork.
  

Payments that not everyone has

There is also a class of probable costs that differ from vendor to vendor. The fact is that a CRM system cannot exist on its own, it needs an infrastructure. In cloud services, as a rule, all expenses for virtual capacities (clouds) are already included in the cost of renting licenses. With some desktop and web systems, things are worse. We will not go into details and talk about the fact that the unoptimized architecture and legacy code of the times of the 2000s are to blame in many respects - we’ll just talk about possible infrastructure investments.

• The cost of the DBMS is the saddest part of the costs that the vendor puts on the shoulders of customers. Some CRM systems, starting with n users, require MS SQL DBMS (there is also Oracle DBMS), which costs a lot of money and which must be purchased separately, in addition to the cost of licenses. At the same time, there are many free and "light" DBMSs that withstand the majority of the load and cost absolutely nothing. But in order to work with such databases, you need to continuously optimize the code and take care of the project architecture. For example, we have been using Firebird DBMS for many years in RegionSoft CRM, including for loaded projects, and have never encountered serious database crashes.
  
• Equipment costs are a special item. If the company is large, there are a lot of users and records, but high security requirements are imposed, then most likely you will have to purchase a server to store the database and backups inside the company. But then again, this is a one-time cost. Well, of course, you may need to update the fleet of specialized equipment: cash registers, barcoders, card readers, and so on. But this is not the features of the CRM implementation project, but the features of each specific business.
  
• Sometimes vendors of cloud systems impose restrictions on backups or administration systems and sell them as an independent complementary solution. Therefore, before deciding on the implementation, be sure to check how often backups are created, how they are transferred in the event of a vendor crash or termination, and how much the system will be administered (for example, Active Directory capabilities may be limited).
  

What you can’t do without

There are several categories of vendor services for which it is best to pay so that the implementation of the system is not delayed, and employees do not perceive it as a foreign and hostile tool.

• For data import - if you have a ready-made client base, you are migrating from another CRM system or corporate software, it is better to entrust the data migration to the vendor, so as not to end up with a damaged database. In addition, he will be able to do this much faster than your employees.
  
• For initial setup - if you do not have a good IT specialist in your staff, it is better to ask the vendor to help set up telephony, templates, directories, first business processes. At the same time, you should carefully understand what and how they do to you in the future to independently cope with such tasks.
  
• Tuition - the fee for it, as a rule, is not very high, and the training itself is carried out online. Therefore, this is a useful waste of time and money, which will make it possible to quickly and competently start without breaking the system and without turning to the vendor with much more serious (and expensive to solve) problems.
  
• For technical support - this is almost no comment. Priority and high-quality technical support is always paid, but it also always allows you to do better work with CRM vases. At the same time, no one will come to your office - for most serious vendors, all help is provided by means of remote access to a computer as soon as possible and exclusively on business.
  

At that moment, when you decide to look for answers to your questions on the Internet or stand in line for a free consultation, sit down and calculate how much it will cost you hours of downtime. As a rule, the figure is striking and motivates to conclude a contract for priority service. But now, alas, a business rarely evaluates and counts this watch, but in vain - you would have looked, we have reviewed not only the CRM support plan, but the entire IT infrastructure and business process management system.

• For updates. If the vendor announces a paid upgrade to the new major version, it’s better to always upgrade - you will get the latest functionality, more stable operation, and other advantages. It’s like an overhaul of a car: made - and N more years without troubles.
  

ROI - ask about it anyway

ROI is a very fashionable indicator that CEO, CTO and CIO love to talk about. And if without irony, then this is a return on investment, in other words, the payback of a CRM system. It is impossible to name the exact payback period: it all depends on how well the CRM system is implemented and effectively used. Alas, it happens that after a brilliant implementation, the system simply stands idle - what kind of payback is it now to talk about. Therefore, if you were waiting for the payback formula, forgive us for the disappointment - but in this case it will turn out to be just a lie. Let's explain why.

Here is the general formula for the return on investment:

ROI = ((Income - Cost) * Period) / (Amount of investment) * 100%

Here, the ratio of all profits earned during the period of ownership of the investment asset to the amount of the investment made (in this case, the cost of implementation) is considered. Do you already understand why there is no formula for calculating investments in CRM? The fact is that it is difficult to isolate the increase in profitability that falls on the system, since the effect of CRM is not isolated from other events within the company.

Nevertheless, there are ways to reduce the payback period and increase the effectiveness of the CRM system. To do this, you must first tie up a maximum of processes on the CRM system: sales, support, marketing, mail, telephony, warehouse, etc. Secondly, you need to conduct training and begin active work in the system as soon as the licenses appear on user PCs. Thirdly, it is necessary to form conditional user activity coefficients and train them to work in the system continuously. Fourth, it is imperative to analyze the result of work and broadcast success to the entire team.

Why you shouldn’t believe the colorful presentations of vendors with specific ROIs (by the way, very real and taken from the implementation of other clients):

• Estimates for expanding, integrating, and managing a new IT system are rarely realistic.
  
• The ROI of another business does not apply to you in any way, since you have your own processes, deadlines and employees
  
• all profit growth cannot be recorded on the account of CRM-ki, in the end, it is only a tool for which live intelligent people
  
• the vendor does not have your data on the state of the company before implementation and it cannot promise growth and profit without knowing the scale of the disaster or, conversely, your success.
  

This Venn diagram doesn’t mean anything, but she is so cute! True, it looks like a business presentation of boys in ties? Sometimes even the girls on the slides show - but the value of this is not considered, even crack

A CRM system is capable of delivering tangible business results even with little impact. Nucleus Research conducted a study of 362 companies with long-term (cloud - 16 months, local software - 23 months) and medium-term (20% of respondents implemented systems in less than 5 months) implementations and found that on average, sales grew by 4 per year , 5%, reduction in administrative expenses - 3.6%, profit growth of 4%, outflow of customers decreased by 3.3%. All indicators are taken without coordination with each other - a separate effect. If you do not work in finance and do not own a business, these numbers may seem small to you, but this is not so.

Let's try these numbers on a small company that had 5,000,000 rubles in sales per year, 100,000 overhead costs, 1,000,000 profits and 100 customers, of which 20 changed each year.

So:

Sales = 5,000,000 * 4.5% = 225,000
Adm. expenses = 100,000 - (100,000 * 96.4%) = 3600
Profit = 1,000,000 * 4% = 40,000
Customers: 20 left, 19 left. One remained. Each client bought an average of 50,000, that is, they saved another 50,000 for next year.
The total effect was: 318,600. In principle, this paid off CRM for a small company and even with training.

By the way, according to the same Nucleus Research, on average, every dollar invested in CRM brings $ 8.71. And that seems to be true.

Unobvious but probable

The introduction of any corporate software is a very complex multi-faceted process, in which everything is mixed: from technology to psychology. On the one hand, there is a vendor who knows the product and understands the price and engineering value of his software, on the other hand, customer representatives who are most often far from IT and are sure that “everyone lies and brings in” (especially those who conduct business approximately to these principles). To negotiate, present, collect requirements, draw up TK, implement it is a huge work of both parties, which often runs the risk of being torn down due to trifles. And there are no trifles in business. We have compiled a list of unobvious things, ignorance of which can spoil the whole process and break the relationship between the customer and the vendor. Be sure to pay attention to them.  

• If you are dealing with the implementation of a foreign CRM system, be prepared for the fact that some vendors have problems with localization (translation) and you can get both strange table headers and field names, as well as completely foreign modules. Ask the vendor if there is a localization package and how complete and accurate the translation is.
  
• In import systems, our primary and our accounting are absent as a class , because abroad there is the concept of invoicing (a single account as the main document). You will have to buy ready-made connectors, plug-ins and other modules from Russian partners of the systems, pay for any integration with our native 1C.
  
• If you are introducing a cloud-based CRM system, be sure to check out about backups - how often they are created, where they are stored, what are the guarantees of recovery.
  
• If the client base will be located in the cloud of the vendor or provider, ask how many crashes and breaks have occurred lately, check the server downtime for critical reasons and the speed of service recovery (uptime) . By the way, not a single professional hosting provider will name 100% - rather 99.9%, because there is always a chance of failure.
  
• If you are implementing a desktop CRM system, do not believe your eyes and the speed of the demo version. Ask the vendor about stability and responsiveness of the system. To do this, you need to know the approximate volume of your records (500,000 customers, 2 discount programs, about 7,000 sales per day, 300 calls, 50 letters, etc.). The demo is usually always nimble, but on a real base, adventures with suspensions and the "Report is about to be built" window can begin.
  
• If the CRM-system implies the presence of virtual storage and an email client, be sure to check what limits exist for the volume of the box and disk . When after 6 months of use, you learn that the extension costs money, it will be late.
  
• Read the terms of use, read the contract - these documents may cover such things as mandatory technical support, annual “guaranteed” indexation, the right of the vendor to terminate the contract unilaterally, the right to change prices, the right not to supply updates, and much more. This is exactly the case when it is better not to move on without reading the documents.
  
• Pay attention to what currency you have to pay. If you intend to make payments in euros or dollars, then, as you may have repeatedly noticed, in Russia this can lead to an increase in value due to an increase in the exchange rate. Some vendors have their own “internal” course (for example, during the shaking fall-winter 2014, some manufacturers fixed prices at 40-43 rubles, while others chose to use the situation on their own and did not fix the course).
  
• If the system has several delivery options or revisions, be sure to clarify the differences. So, for example, cloud workers have restrictions on tasks, projects, records, processes, etc. You will have to pay for capacity expansion. For desktop systems, the differences are usually related to the scale of the business - for example, you can see a detailed comparison of the capabilities of our editions .
  

For some reason, purely psychologically, the inhabitants of Russia are afraid to choose, discuss, talk. The same thing happens with business. Do not! To do this, we, vendors, have people on staff who are responsible for advising clients. Free, of course. Therefore, choose wisely, discuss, do not be afraid to ask questions or even make a list of questions based on this article and send it to the selected developer.

Never choose CRM software just for the price. It is important to stay within your budget, but it is equally important that the software is user-friendly and that you select a provider that is available to answer all your technical questions and solve problems. Yes, the true costs of implementing CRM are opaque and there are many things to consider. But the result of efforts can not only please, but also pleasantly surprise and even shake.

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