Cloud CRM software is a serious business investment in today's competitive environment. Out of 5279 CRM buyers 68 percent were either use non-industry specific software or manual methods like spreadsheets and paper notes to manage customer relationships. Commercial CRM is preferred to a proprietary solution. It was discovered that 9 percent customers wanted a cloud based CRM and a majority wanted to evaluate best of breed solutions over an integrated suite. Sales force automation was the top best of breed buyers and integrated suite. Nine percent wanted an integrated suite or even multiple applications. 

CRM software should have a good long run sustaining contact management as having a 360 degree view helps increase cross sell and upsell opportunities. It should have a good note taking capability for tracking customer information. Integrating with third party systems is also important. The reporting and analytics feature is also useful for staying informed and is advantageous to both customer and the organization and dashboards help getting a single view of activities.

Sales force automation was the best requested CRM application among integrated suite and best of breed buyers representing 76 percent of companies evaluating best of breed solutions and nearly 75 percent of people interested into integrated suites. 

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