How to create a convenient CRM system for business from scratch

If you are the owner of a medium or large business, you are probably already familiar with most popular CRM solutions. You are here on this page, which means that the very stage of development has been reached when ready-made products are no longer able to cover all needs and support you on the way to further growth and success.

What criteria should a CRM system meet

In any full-fledged CRM, three groups of processes are implemented: 

• marketing, 
• sales,
• services. 

Their implementation depends on the specifics and nuances of the industry: for example, bank CRM will be very different from CRM for IT integrators. It is impossible to create a system suitable for any company: yes, there are good “boxed” products, but there is no “silver bullet”. Companies do not need a universal solution, but a tool that will allow them to recoup their CRM strategy. After all, the cost of changes in large products today is higher than the potential profit from them in the short term, and this slows down business development.

Another feature is the request of companies for omnichannel. In CRM, it cannot be achieved without integration with third-party systems and services. This should be approached with extreme caution, avoiding compromising user data. In order not to transfer information to third-party services, large companies prefer locally deployed CRM, including in private clouds. And medium and small businesses often use third-party cloud services (SaaS) and open source solutions to save money. 

To summarize, an ideal CRM should allow you to quickly configure business processes so that the company can keep up with market changes. And it should also be:

• fault-tolerant and secure;
• easy and intuitive to use;
• omnichannel and maximally automated, so that users spend as little effort as possible on entering information.

Unique and standardized CRM systems

Up to 80% of attempts to adapt integrated systems end in failure or complete rejection of the use of CRM. This applies to both ready-made solutions and custom-designed ones. 

In the first case, the business owner pays for the desire to save on development, and in the second — for insufficient involvement in the process of creating a unique solution. It is important to understand that custom CRM development implies teamwork. The developers have not yet learned to read the thoughts of customers, besides, no one knows the entire internal kitchen and the basic needs of the company better than its founder.

Disadvantages of a unified CRM system:

• Surface integration. Most of the CRM systems that exist on the market in the “Buy and use” mode differ in templates and are designed for the mass consumer. This leads to the following conclusion: you will not be able to integrate them into your business at 100% efficiency. 
• An abundance of unnecessary functions. Ready-made CRM products are created with a view to a wide audience and try to cover the needs of a wide variety of commercial industries. 
• Limited customization options. Template CRM is a system with a set of standard functions that cannot be fully adjusted to your needs. Using ready-made CRM can be compared to buying shoes a size smaller – there are shoes, but they are uncomfortable.
• Creating a CRM system from scratch assumes that as a result you will get an effective, unique tool with a comfortable design and the most important functions. And when developing turnkey solutions, you always leave yourself the opportunity to refine and supplement the product in accordance with current needs.

Who needs a turnkey CRM system?

The introduction of a CRM system, unique or not, sometimes does not bring any benefit at all. Everything depends entirely on the company’s business model. 

If you work only with regular customers and are not interested in attracting new ones, creating a CRM system from scratch does not make sense. But if you are at the stage of active customer search and are focused on collecting data about potential buyers of your product, then a CRM system is exactly what you need.

CRM systems are most often used by companies from the following areas:

• eCommerce;
• consulting;
• sale of real estate;
• hotel and restaurant business;
• construction;
• logistics.

The advantages of a CRM system become especially noticeable at the stage of active business growth. If earlier you could track customers through simple channels (email or personal notes), now this is not enough.

First of all, the information should be available to all employees at any time; without an adapted CRM system, you will have to spend precious time searching for important data. 

The main advantages of CRM include:

• shared access to important information about business processes and customer data through a single platform;
• a single contact database (e-mails, phone numbers, social networks and websites);
• a single interface for communicating with customers, accessible to every employee;
• flexible system of roles and access;
• storing the history of communication with customers and partners;
• storing your purchase history;
• integrated customer support system;
• tracking the most effective sales channels;
• collecting information about how customers find your company.

The need to enter data manually significantly reduces the productivity of sales departments. The CRM system serves as a tool for automating monotonous actions and frees employees from endless work with daily administrative tasks.

CRM implementation helps to build a standardized sales process, provide employees with a step-by-step roadmap for closing deals and shorten the sales cycle.

CRM system development: stages and main features

So, you are firmly convinced that the introduction of a unique CRM is necessary for the success of your enterprise. Most likely, now you are interested in the most important question: “How to create a CRM?” If you do not have a technical education and you have nothing to do with the programming community, the easiest way out would be to order the development of a CRM system from a team of experienced specialists.

Creating a CRM is a large-scale and complex project that requires maximum involvement of the customer in the development process. It includes three main stages:

In-depth analysis of your business. The contractor’s team must have a business analyst who will help collect the most complete information about your company, website, important features of commercial activities and internal processes, for example, the organization of work.

Development. Developers study data from a business analyst and create an optimized CRM system taking into account all the recommendations and wishes of the client.

QA testing, bug detection, integration. This is the final stage when the product is tested by a team of testers. They are engaged in the identification and elimination of errors. CRM installation and integration is possible only after all necessary checks.

How much does a CRM system cost and how long will development take?

The cost of developing a CRM system depends on many factors. Let’s list the main ones:

• The number of functions and options. Each new function is a new part of the program code, which requires a certain number of hours of developer work. You pay for this time.
• The number of roles and access levels. It all depends on the hierarchy in your company. For example, you may need to implement the roles of project manager, sales manager, department representative, etc. For each of these roles, you need a different access level, which is also set in the code.
• Integration of third-party services. A large number of complex-component platforms that need to be integrated into the system significantly increases the cost of developing a software solution. 
• Presence/absence of a mobile version. There are two options in total: adapting the site to mobile devices or creating a separate mobile application. In the second case, the cost and development time increases almost 2 times.
• Automation. If you want to automate processes as much as possible, then the cost of developing the system will be much higher. 

How much does it all cost?

The cost is purely individual and is calculated based on your requirements and wishes for the development and functions of the system. Note that the cost depends on the hourly rate of work of specialists. Depending on the scale of the project, the cost of development can be either fixed or flexible. 

CRM system development process: briefly about the main thing

After the team has decided on the CRM architecture, the developers start working in the selected framework. To develop a CRM system, programmers work on a standard sprint system. The team usually consists of 4-6 people.

Each developer has his own area of responsibility and is working on a specific task. One sprint rarely lasts more than 2 weeks. After the sprint is completed, the team demonstrates the result of the work done to the client.

Interface

We adhere to the generally accepted methodology: we have written our own UI kit (library of graphic elements) and assemble interfaces from these ready-made elements as a constructor. If desired, you can brand our CRM very quickly for a specific customer: insert a logo, change colors to a corporate palette, move and change the size of some elements on the screen. 

In interface building, we try to use modern UX developments: today this is a mandatory practice, without which it is impossible to be competitive. So if users have worked with other CRM systems before, then they will have no difficulties with mastering our product.

Mission: create a CRM system. How to choose a contractor?

You can either use outsourcing solutions or hire your own staff of programmers.

Advantages of outsourcing: 

• Cheaper than maintaining your own staff;
• Development in a clearly defined time frame;
• The contractor’s team takes over the development and implementation of the solution, as well as trains the staff;
• Quality assurance (companies value their reputation).

When creating your own staff of programmers, the following problems may arise: 

• A team of disparate specialists will need to be united, and spend time creating interaction between them. 
• There is a big risk of finding low-quality specialists. If you do not know highly specialized concepts, you can get a poor-quality result. 
• The time spent on the search. Finding quality specialists is not the easiest task. 

Conclusions

1. Our own CRM system will allow us to get a more personalized approach to the company’s business processes and will be integrated into a specific niche, unlike template CRM. 
2. CRM system development consists of three main stages: in-depth analysis of your business, development and testing with integration. 
3. The advantages of our own CRM include shared access to information, a single interface for communicating with customers, tracking the most effective sales channels, a single database of contacts, a flexible system of roles and access, etc.