Welcome back for part two in our Upgrade CRM blog series! In last week’s blog, we delved into how to decide between a CRM upgrade versus a CRM reimplementation. Once you’ve chosen to move forward with a CRM upgrade or reimplementation, you then have to decide whether you will host your CRM system online or on-premises. In today’s blog, we will go over some of the pros of each option to help you decide which option is the best fit for your needs. Let’s get started!
Benefits of CRM Online
CRM Online is a SaaS model. If you choose CRM Online, this means that your CRM system will be in Microsoft’s Cloud.
- You get immediate access to new features for Dynamics CRM as soon as they are released. Microsoft currently releases two major updates a year for CRM Online.
- No falling behind on versions – Microsoft requires you to update regularly, which prevents you from falling multiple versions behind. This prevents a large and time consuming upgrade project in the future.
- Less upfront and ongoing costs because you don’t need the IT infrastructure or maintenance.
- With online hosting, you pay a monthly fee instead of paying all at once. It requires less cash up front.
- CRM Online is secure and reliable.
Benefits of CRM On-premises
This traditional model is where CRM is hosted by your company or by another hosting partner or vendor.
- You have access to the SQL database:
- You have the ability to run SQL queries and reports.
- If you run into performance issues, you can do a lot more fine tuning to improve performance because you have access to the database and infrastructure.
- You decide when you want to upgrade.
- You have control over security and reliability.
Ultimately, the decision comes down to what will work best for your organization’s unique business needs. You can read our case study and solution story for examples of two companies who chose to upgrade their CRM systems and the hosting decisions they opted for. Also check out the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online security and service continuity guide for additional information: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj134081(v=crm.6).aspx#Introduction
Hopefully this gives you a starting point when considering whether to host your CRM system online or on-premises. Our upgrade webinar, Upgrading CRM: Powerful New Features to Make Your Work Easier, will be today at 10:00 am CST. It’s a great place to start if you have questions about upgrading. Spots are still available so register now! Please reach out to us with any additional questions or if you want to have conversation about CRM online versus on-premises. Make sure you check back next week for the final installment in our series, where we will talk about how to move from a data-driven CRM system to a process-driven system.
Happy CRM’ing!