Benefits and limitations of CRM on premise hosting

The Customer Relationship Management system has revolutionised the way that organisations store and manage their data.  The relationship that a company shares with its customers has improved and this has helped to build a deep rooted customer loyalty.

The Microsoft Dynamics is a very comprehensive system that serves well as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool. It consolidates data into a single database which can be access by employees from different divisions according to their security levels.

Microsoft is one of the few organisations to offer its clients a choice between an on premise hosting and a cloud hosting. The Dynamics CRM is totally customisable from the basic entity level and a client can define data structures that suit their need in both the online version as well as the self-hosted model.

Some organisations especially those that are located in one area prefer to have an on premise CRM system. There are several benefits as well as limitations to this choice. We look at some of them below.

Investment cost: Installing the MS Dynamics CRM involves an initial capital investment which could be quite a large sum. The on premise model works on a monthly subscription model and hence the organisation does not incur a huge initial cost but pays Microsoft on a monthly basis to use the CRM.

Data control: With an on premise CRM an organisation has total control over their data. The security of the data is the responsibility of the organisation. The amount of data which can be stored depends on the storage capacity of the server. The organisation will have to arrange to ensure regular data backup is taken in case of unforeseen events like a Hard disk crash or unexpected calamity.

Hardware: The Dynamics CRM can be installed on the organisations existing server and there is no additional hardware cost in this regard.  The organisation can decide on the type of server they would like to have the CRM installed on. The server will need to be maintained to ensure that it functions without any problems. Hence there is a maintenance cost or AMC charge attached to it.

Network: An on premise CRM is not dependent on the internet and works locally through the LAN. Even with a poor internet connection the CRM will function fine. In the unforeseen situation that the internet line should go down, the operations of the organisation will not be hampered and they will still have access to all their data. Over the last few years we have seen dramatic improvement in the quality of internet connectivity in India but unexpected events cannot be ruled out. The down side is that the Dynamics CRM takes a little longer to deploy from an on premise server than the cloud hosted model. However the time lag is not very noticeable.

An on premise CRM needs to be administered by the technical team or by a Partner company like Pragmasys. An online Dynamics CRM hosting requires limited administering from the clients end and is handled by the Microsoft team themselves.

When deciding the model of CRM hosting an organisation needs to access the feature that compliments its key requirements. Both models of hosting and CRM deployment have their benefits and limitations and are equally weighted.