Why CRM and the cloud are a perfect match

1. simple integration. Only those who know their customers precisely can meet their individual needs. That is why every company should aim to build up a so-called "golden customer record" in the CRM system - a central collection of all data for each individual customer. In order to obtain a uniform view of customer data from different systems, data from numerous other sources is required in addition to the information from the CRM system itself. Most of these are located in the cloud - be it Facebook and Twitter, website tracking systems or the user profiles of predictive behavioral targeting providers. With their predefined interfaces, cloud-based CRM solutions can optimally support specialist departments in integrating these sources and ensure short project runtimes. However, systems that are often operated on-premise, such as an ERP or an e-commerce platform, can also be easily connected.2 Unlimited mobility. Mobility is a knockout criterion for CRM systems today. There are two main reasons for this. On the one hand, sales employees always need the latest data when traveling in order to be able to follow up directly on the current situation when visiting customers. Secondly, CRM systems are increasingly being used for service in the sense of a holistic customer approach - and therefore also for planning and managing field service technicians. These are also dependent on mobile solutions in order to carry out their on-site assignments efficiently. Only a solution from the cloud can guarantee the location-independent availability of up-to-date data for sales and service employees.3 Highly dynamic. The management of customer relationships is highly dependent on events and is therefore very dynamic. At peak times, such as before a trade fair or during large-scale campaigns, significantly more employees usually need access to the CRM system than usual. The cloud, with its great scalability, can offer the necessary flexibility here. If more users are needed in the CRM system at short notice, this can be managed quickly and easily; and once the trade fair is over or the campaign is finished, the company can return to a lower number of users just as easily.4 General strengths. In addition to these CRM-specific aspects, the cloud naturally also offers many advantages per se compared to an on-premise installation. These include, for example, the possibility for a company's international locations to access data around the clock. Implementation is faster, cost planning is more secure and savings can be made as no in-house infrastructure is required. And if the provider of the CRM solution operates it in a data center in Germany, security is increased. The comprehensive precautions that are taken in such a professional cloud data center can hardly be realized by a company itself with an on-premise installation. "There are many reasons to use a CRM system from the cloud," says Ingo Ax, Business Unit Manager E-Commerce & PIM at Arithnea. "When choosing a solution, however, companies need to consider a few things. It should offer powerful evaluation tools and reports, otherwise even the most comprehensive customer data is worthless. Equally important are powerful mobile apps, which should definitely have an offline mode. Only then can sales and service employees continue to work on the move when there is no mobile network coverage. Flexible user management should ensure that user numbers can be increased or decreased at any time."