Gone are the days of restrictive, overpriced CRM systems. A new day has dawned on the agile, cost-effective custom CRM stacks of the future.
As an agency we’re finding more and more organisations moving away from all-in-one CRM systems and instead asking us to implement a more agile CRM stack consisting of multiple systems that serve a singular core function each.
The reason?
Well to put it simply, there’s a shift happening in the world’s fastest growing software market. Disruptors are popping up left, right and centre, offering more technologically advanced options to a market that’s gearing up for the AI revolution. However, most importantly, due to the rapid advancements in technology, the cost price has begun to plummet as everyone grapples for market share.
So what exactly is a custom CRM stack?
It’s a work of art, that’s what. An ecosystem of tech living in harmony, all delivering their specific function for the greater good… of your organisation.
Take Salesforce for example – back in the day, your Sales, Marketing, Service, Reporting, Data, and much more used to be housed under the umbrella of one CRM provider. Convenient yes, flexible no.
Now however, each of those critical elements can sit within its own high-impact, low-cost system, all then connected via APIs that ensure data passes smoothly between them all as if they all sat within the same system still.
Below is an example of a recent custom CRM/Tech stack that WeDoCRM implemented for Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.
What are the benefits to my organisation?
Flexibility, low-cost, easier optimisation, greater access to technical innovation… the benefits are almost endless when it comes to a custom CRM stack.
There are three key benefits we always champion as an agency though and they include:
- Low-cost – a smaller, more singular focused system comes at a much lower cost point than unlocking the functionality in a larger all-in-one system. This is also aided largely by the tech revolution that’s making SaaS cheaper to produce.
- Flexibility – having systems responsible for delivering a core task or function, such as Sales, Marketing, CS, Reporting etc, makes it easier to evaluate them, their impact to the business and their longevity. Isolating a system, removing it from the stack and replacing it with another solution, all without disrupting everything, is far more seamless. WeDoCRM has swamped out systems within a custom CRM stack in as little as two-weeks before.
- Impactful innovation – there’s a famous old saying, “Jack of all trades, Master of none.”. The art of Sales, Marketing, Service, Reporting etc are so different from one another, which makes delivering SaaS for them all so challenging. You just can’t be good at them all. But to be great at one is much more attainable for a tech company. You can focus innovation on that one thing and pour everything into it.
Are there any negatives to a custom CRM stack?
Of course. It’s why the likes of HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive and SugarCRM still flourish in this aggressive and congested software market. However, it’s important to point out that they’re not exactly negatives, more different options to suit the various types of organisations.
The best example here is that a start-up or SME may find an all-in-one solution a better option given the resource needed from an agency like WeDoCRM to maintain and operate a custom CRM stack. Whereas a large to enterprise organisation will benefit significantly from the custom CRM stack, purely because of their operational size and capacity.
Custom CRM stacks are definitely the future of CRM, both for B2B and B2C. If you’d like to chat through what your options are for your own organisation, our team is ready to lend their expertise.
