If all you need is basic management of your customer contacts, activity, and sales leads for a dozen users, virtually any customer relationship management application will handle your requirements. However, if you need to serve 100 or more users, require remote access, or have special workflow needs, selecting the right CRM software will require more homework on your part.

Shopping for a CRM system can be far more complicated if you require integration with other applications. Not all CRM applications can be easily linked with all accounting and other business applications. It may make more sense to ease into CRM by first investigating CRM applications that easily integrate with your current applications software.

If you can’t find CRM software that’s suitable for your needs, you may broaden your search to include CRM applications that do not already have prebuilt integration capabilities but will let you add these on. However, don’t forget to factor the time and cost for CRM integration work into your purchase decision.