"It’s taken longer than I thought," he acknowledges. "The biggest hold-up just has to do with change in general," including getting users to adopt the systems and change the way they work. The integration that drove the decision to go with an on-premise product won’t even happen until the next phase of the rollout. "It’s a long road," Davis adds.

For companies that can adjust to an on-demand CRM system out of the box, implementation takes less time. But it would be a mistake to assume that all hosted CRM implementations are quick and easy. In fact, most take time to roll out enterprisewide and many require bringing in consultants to help out. "Some customers have the expectation that you flip a switch and you’re done," says Bois. "But there are setup costs and training costs and ramp-up costs. There’s getting the system customized to match the business context and then getting people to use the system. CRM implementations are still complex, even if they’re delivered in an on-demand fashion."

At SunGard, a smaller and more narrowly defined rollout of Salesforce.com took a full year. "We had to do a fair amount of work lining up what we wanted to accomplish with what [Salesforce.com] could provide," Slusar explains. SunGard also had to bring in consultants to assist with the rollout and accompanying change-management issues. Some of that effort was devoted to standardizing data definitions in order to preserve data integrity. Because the company had so customized the software’s template to meet the needs of its global sales force, there was no way Salesforce.com’s online training would work. Slusar rolled out the system in phases until 90 percent of her user base was on it by the spring of 2004. "We still could do more to drive standardized behavior and usage that we haven’t," Slusar says.

Looking forward, Slusar has created a team to oversee the Salesforce.com product over the long term. They will work to increase user adoption and also keep track of new offerings from the vendor as well as from "the mushrooming number of partners that have popped up all over claiming they have something that works well with Salesforce.com," says Slusar. (Applications offered by companies partnering with Salesforce range from Web-based HR recruiting and screening tools to call-center scripting and software that helps doctors take notes on wireless handhelds.)

"The good news is there are a lot of things you can do with this system," Slusar says. "The bad news is you need people to do it. And I already have a full-time job."