The Automation of Sales and Marketing: Application Service Providers (ASPs) a Viable CRM Alternative?
ASPs are, in fact, starting to infiltrate the big guys. Staples, an $11.6 billion office supply retailer, recently deployed Salesnet to its 500 sales employees to track demand and forecast revenue.
These days, the only other threat to ASPs is Microsoft, which released its CRM product last January. Greenberg predicts the software giant will undoubtedly steal a large piece of the CRM pie. "They’ve got the marketing muscle, the dollars, the functionality, the engineers, and the fears they strike in the hearts of other vendors," he says.
The bottom line, Chatham says, is that if an application meets your needs, you shouldn’t worry about whether it is hosted or licensed. Instead, when it comes time to select a vendor, consider the basics, like the company’s financially stability, its reputation and market position, and the quality, price and potential benefits of its application. "The hosted versus licensed issue is overplayed," Chatham says. "A lot of the issues people throw up around hosted data are really misplaced."
