Building Custom CRM Solutions on a Tight Budget

In today’s competitive business environment, customer interaction is the most important thing a business needs to manage. A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system helps business owners systematize, conduct, manage, and supervise customer interactions. That allows a business to carefully curate a memorable user experience for its prospects, optimizing customer satisfaction. And that enables the business to cultivate and then capitalize on customer loyalty.

That is the reason why so many businesses are embracing CRM. According to a 2022 report published by Fortune Business Insights, the market size of CRM software is slated to grow at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 12.5% between 2022 to 2029, going from USD 63.91 Billion to USD 145.79 Billion. This anticipated demand is indicative of the growing utility of CRMs.

Even though more and more businesses are leaning towards adopting CRMs, many are still skeptical because of the custom CRM development cost involved. Despite custom CRMs being an economical choice in the long run, many business owners worry about the upfront investment they think they would have to make.

But what if we told you that you could massively cut down your custom CRM development cost as a business owner? This post explores all the current innovations and strategies you can apply to considerably lower your upfront investment while enjoying the benefits of customized CRM development services.

10 Innovative Strategies You Can Apply to Reduce Custom CRM Development Costs

1.  Offshore Development

One of the biggest cost-reduction hacks you can use as a business owner to curb costs is outsourcing your CRM application’s development to a reliable, offshore CRM development company.

Using an offshore firm comes with a host of benefits. But the top of the list has to be its cost-effectiveness. An offshore company could provide you with much more competitive pricing than a local firm operating within the same labor market as you. You do not have much bargaining power in your domestic market. However, acquiring resources is much more cost-beneficial in a developing market with abundant skilled labor.

Thus, outsourcing is the best option if you are trying to avoid the headache of going through the entire shebang of searching, recruiting, and training a full-fledged development team. Hiring an offshore custom CRM development company will help you get high-quality development services at a reasonable price. Moreover, you benefit heavily from the diversity of thought from including experts in different parts of the world. 

2.  Open-Source Tools and Frameworks

Open-Source Software, or OSS, are effective tools to cut costs. OSS are the types of tools and frameworks available for free. As a result, a developer can use OSS to build a full custom CRM in a cost-efficient way.

You can get a wide range of customization options. The features and functionalities can be easily tailored and modified to fit your industry and organizational needs. With open-source software, you don’t need to shell out money in the form of licensing fees and proprietary software. As a result, you will be able to save even more money.

3.  Automation and Workflow Optimization

Several manual tasks and processes can be done swiftly and economically using Automation and workflow optimization. Automation of processes reduces the time and cost of developing custom CRM solutions. Similarly, workflow optimization involves identifying the most optimal process for a certain action or task. When implemented across the project, workflow optimization allows you to save a significant amount of time and a lot of money.

4.  Flexible Hiring Models

Regarding cost-effective development, one of the most common pieces of advice is to pick this or that particular hiring model to save money. But it doesn’t work like that. Every business is different. For example, the needs and requirements of your business would be a lot different than even your immediate competitor within the industry. What that tells us is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution that works for all businesses and cuts development costs.  

Hence, hiring a custom CRM development company with flexible engagement options is more prudent. Depending on your project needs, you can choose the best fit your requirements.

There are usually three engagement options that you can choose from:

• Dedicated Resource Engagement
  • You can hire dedicated developers who will work full-time on your project.
  • They will work as a part of your in-house team and get express instructions from you about the tasks and the work that needs to be done.
  • You can pay the entire development team a flat fee weekly or monthly.

• Fixed Pricing Model
  • You can hire a development team for a particular project.
  • By sharing your requirements, the CRM development company will provide you with a detailed proposal, price estimate, and payment milestones.
  • You can agree to the proposal and get the entire team to work on your project till the project’s completion.

• Hourly Pricing Model
  • Here, you can hire a full- or part-time development team.
  • You only have to pay for the hours you utilize the development team’s services on your project.
  • You won’t have to pay any retainer or advance amount as is usually needed in fixed contracts.

You should have the option to choose the pricing model that best suits your specific needs. Hence, seek out a CRM development company that provides you with various engagement models so you can choose what works best for you.

5.  Agile Development

Scope creep is a term used to define uncontrolled changes made to a project’s scope without proper procedures to make extended support, resources, or time available to the development team. That can impact the project’s schedule, budget, resources, and goals, jeopardizing its successful completion.

Scope creep often occurs when clients or stakeholders introduce new requirements after the project has started without adequate review. That can result in the project team being expected to deliver additional tasks and milestones without additional resources or time. As a result, the project either underperforms, gets delayed, or fails.

Use Agile development to avoid making the same mistake and not burn a lot of money in the process. Implementing an agile approach to custom CRM development can reduce costs in the long run by avoiding scope creep, increasing efficiency, and minimizing rework.

Agile development methodologies can help businesses build custom CRM solutions more efficiently, reducing the time and cost of development. Agile methodologies focus on iterative development, with regular feedback and testing, allowing businesses to build custom CRM solutions faster and with fewer errors.

6.  Modular Development

Using pre-built CRM modules is another cost-effective way of building custom CRM solutions. Pre-built modules provide a foundation for building custom CRM solutions, allowing businesses to focus on adding custom features and functionality. A custom CRM in modules allows incremental development and reduces upfront development costs. Businesses can choose to build essential modules first and add more modules later as the need arises.

7.  Cloud-Based Infrastructure

Another big cost saver is the use of cloud-based infrastructure. It can significantly reduce the upfront cost of building custom CRM solutions. The reason is pretty simple. Cloud-based infrastructure provides a scalable, pay-as-you-go model. It means you can pay as a business owner as your project scales. You do not have to invest in acquiring expensive hardware or building adequate infrastructure to support the platform. With the cloud, you only have to pay for the features you are getting, and that’s it.

8.  Hybrid Development

Hybrid development combines pre-built CRM systems with bespoke development. Hybrid development methodologies shorten the time and expense required to create unique CRM solutions. As a business, you can take a pre-built CRM solution and ask a custom CRM development company to include unique features, functionalities, and capabilities. It can save you a lot in development costs while bringing you the best of what both off-the-shelf and custom software offer.

Hybrid development saves you a considerable amount on custom CRM development costs. But keep in mind, to get the benefits of custom features and functionalities; you should use both the pre-built software and the custom services of the same CRM development company. It will also help you get further concession in development costs.

9.  Subscription-Based Pricing Models

Businesses may pay for development in small amounts thanks to subscription-based pricing structures. The expense of creating customized CRM solutions gets stretched out through subscription-based pricing structures. That makes custom development more accessible to enterprises. It eliminates the need for substantial upfront investments. As the pressure of high upfront expenditure is eliminated, more businesses can afford CRM development services. Hence, choosing a subscription-based bespoke CRM development option can easily expand your initial expenditure.

10. Emphasize Features

In a bespoke CRM, determining and prioritizing key features is the key to lowering development costs. Costs for development might rise fast with a CRM with plenty of features. Hence, it is important for you as a business owner to prioritize the features and functionalities essential to your business and let the rest of the miscellaneous features be an afterthought. If you have the budget for those additional features, that is fine. But prioritizing is the way to go if you aim to complete development on a tight budget. Please find the most important features and create them first. That way, you will be able to get results right away while also keeping a lid on your development expenditure.

Conclusion

When it comes to building custom CRM, one of the principal concerns for any business is the custom CRM development cost they would have to bear. You will find this post useful if you encounter a similar dilemma. Above, we have tried to cover as many fresh and innovative cost-saving strategies as possible. We aim to help you achieve cost savings without compromising quality or functionality.

Business owners must assess their requirements and choose the best strategies for their needs and budget. By thinking creatively and embracing these cost-saving techniques, they can bring their custom CRM vision to life while keeping development costs in check.