AJAX is asynchronous Java Script re defined. AJAX helps web-based applications look, act and feel like desktop cousins. Instead of intensively clicking to refresh pages to synchronize content in a CRM application, AJAX can stream data in real time without clicking. In a CRM system, if you are viewing a lead or an account on the screen, you are looking at the copy generated when you first viewed the record. Using AJAX, will update the data in real time without depending on the user to refresh the page, and without refreshing the page all together!
In Salesboom.com
, if you are viewing a contact record, you can add a note dynamically with one click without leaving the view page at all. All other on-demand SaaS CRM vendors will require 4 more clicks to do the same.
If you have a sales force of 100 people adding 30 notes a day, AJAX-style CRM will save your company 12,000 clicks and when translated into time, it could be thousands!
While Salesforce.com is considered the number one choice for on-demand CRM due to their marketing machine effectiveness and the loud mouth of it's CEO,Marc Benioff; there are other options available to small and medium size business that are proven both more suitable and less costly.
A closer look at other fashionable offers include Netsuite, Salesboom.com, RightNow, Entellium as well as the newly SAP Sales Force Automation on-demand solution. In the case of Netsuite and Salesboom.com, both companies offer out-of-the-box wall-to-wall integrated business solutions (CRM and ERP) in one package for almost half the price in the case of Salesboom.com and the same cost in the case of Netsuite.
Uptime Guarantee
Other important factors to consider when deciding what company to go with is the service level agreement- SLA. Salesforce.com does not have an SLA for most customers. That simply means, if Salesforce.com goes down (which happens frequently read this) then your employees can't access your customer records or use the system, and you will never get a refund. While some vendors offer up to 99.98% uptime guarantee only Salesboom.com offers a refund and a penalty clause to every customer.
Watch for tricks
Salesforce.com and other vendors resort to different sales and marketing techniques to get more money out of each and every customer. Take for instance the restriction of team edition users, if you have 10 users team edition, and you need to add one more user, you will be forced to upgrade to the Professional Edition which will mean a total increase of over $6000/year in subscription fees, just like that! Salesforce.com's Team Edition does not have custom fields or mass email capabilities, rendering it obsolete for most companies.
Also, the only vendor that seems to allow your company to mix-and-match editions is Salesboom.com. All other vendors require all your users to upgrade to the higher edition even if only one user out of your 50 users require the functionality in the other edition. This can result in huge increases in subscription fees and most likely will stop the company from utilizing the features needed.
Salesforce.com might tout it's platform as the next big thing; but in reality customers are looking for integrated systems; rather. Kudos to Salesboom.com and Netsuit for their integrated approach.
March, 2007
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