Hosted or on-demand CRM is sometimes cheaper and easier to roll out than the software that lives on your own machines.
If you look at your present business process, you may think of having a software that is flexible enough to accommodate the changing needs of sales and marketing staff and also which can integrate well with the applications that would support to have customer contacts, invoices, records etc. So traditional CRM could be the one that you are offered and you are about to pay and get it.
But then have a round of thinking on Hosted or on-demand CRM that would offer seamless functionalities that your business would need coupled with user friendly interface and all this over the cloud.
On-demand CRM is one booming in the market. Small and midsize businesses have shown interest these software-as-a-service solutions. Thats because these applications are much cheaper than the licensed on-premise software which can cost a huge amount as investments. But Hosted CRM applications come as Pay-per-use model where it would cost you as monthly subscriptions.
Many companies that were once offering traditional CRM solutions, are now offering cloud based solutions. But yes, many still consider the fact of having their precious data on the cloud due to security issues. Many a times, this could be the only reason why businesses consider of opting for on-premise CRM.
But what interests more in the hosted CRM solutions are the great benefits that it offers. The model eliminates the up-front cost and effort required in implementing a CRM system. Customization and integration requirements do take time just as the traditional softwares.
To go with on-demand CRM, you would first need to define your process, figure out the requirements, decide who all are going to use the application, then go through various costs of each model that actually meets your requirements and make a decision. Hosted CRM can be very flexible and an efficient strategy for your business.