Almost half of SMEs don’t use CRM, says survey

A survey of 300 UK businesses has revealed that 46 percent of SMEs are not using CRM systems today.

The survey, conducted on behalf of on-demand computing and communication services Star, found that the most common barrier to CRM adoption is user resistance and the failure of management to enlist user support, followed by the difficulty of integrating legacy IT systems. Meanwhile, 20 percent of respondents admitted to having worked for companies that had previously tried, but failed, to deploy CRM successfully.

However, respondents acknowledged the main attraction of using a cloud computing model for CRM as the speed of deployment, ahead of other benefits such as savings on capital expenditure, lower risk and scalability of the solution.     

In contrast, the main concerns voiced around the use of an on-demand business model for CRM was the perceived loss of control over data which was cited by 33 percent of respondents.

Commenting on the findings, Martino Corbelli, marketing director of Star, says: “The good news here is that most SME businesses are clearly familiar with the speed of deployment benefits of on-demand business services.  However, on-demand CRM solutions like our own, optimising Microsoft Dynamics technology, allow employees to leverage the use of standard Microsoft Windows applications that they already know and use today, like Outlook, Excel and Word. This is the holy grail in unlocking the full potential of CRM and overcoming user’s resistance, as they’ll be able to enjoy all of the benefits of CRM without needing to change the way they operate.”