How Much Does a Bespoke CRM Cost?

A bespoke CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is a customised software system that has been designed to meet the specific requirements and workflows of a particular business. Due to the high amount of variables and possibilities that come with bespoke CRMs, understanding the costs associated with developing and implementing one can be complex. There are many factors that can influence the pricing including the complexity of the design and features, integration requirements and on-going support and maintenance requirements to name a few.

Here, we will aim to enhance your understanding on what factors influence custom CRM pricing and what to look out for when engaging with potential software development companies to ensure you're focusing your time and efforts in the right way.

Factors That Impact Cost of a Bespoke CRM

As you might expect, providing costs for a bespoke CRM solution is not straightforward and heavily dependent on the features and complexity involved. However, it is usually true that the cost of a bespoke CRM or indeed any custom solution will have higher upfront costs than off-the-shelf solutions. Depending on the scope and scale, even providing an accurate quote can take months depending on what information is readily available to the development team.

If we look at the typical development process of a bespoke CRM system, it involves several stages to enable the developers to provide pricing alone.

Generally, a client will provide a development company with a brief, it could be a detailed overview of what they want the system to include, the processes they currently have in place and what it needs to be able to integrate with. Alternatively, the brief may simply state that the company is struggling to keep on top of it's client management tasks and they'd like to explore a bespoke software solution to overcome this. The detail of the brief, the work involved to create a specification and the time spent on consultancy prior to any development work being undertaken are all factors that impact the cost before the development process even begins. It should also be noted at this stage that the development costs associated with creating bespoke CRM systems for small businesses are usually going to look a lot different to enterprises due to the scale, complexity and user base requirements.

Here we will look at the bespoke CRM development process in more detail -

Requirement and Current Environment Analysis

Define Scope

First and foremost, the client needs to define what their business goals are and ultimately, what they want to achieve by implementing bespoke CRM software. This should include measurable objectives such as increasing client retention by 20% in the first year of the CRM being operational as well as some detail on how they intend to use the CRM to do that. For example, they will use the CRM to extract and target at risk customers with personalised, engaging communication. It may also include specific feature requirements relating to the objective such as - full client interaction history, integrated marketing campaign tools and email follow up automation.

There may be one core objective or there may be multiple - this will of course impact on the design and development time of the system and thus, will likely have some impact on the total cost as will the number of essential features to be included.

Process Mapping

Once a client has a thorough understanding of what they want to achieve through the use of a bespoke CRM, all current business processes that will be in some way affected or managed through the CRM system should be mapped out. If there is an existing CRM system - whether bespoke or off-the-shelf a thorough analysis of it's strengths and weaknesses should be undertaken to determine what the new CRM should replicate and what it needs to improve upon. If there is no existing CRM, then workflows and processes should still be mapped out in order to identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement. This will help the developers in designing the new CRM to enhance, rather than disrupt, existing operations.

As alluded to above, the size of an organisation generally influences how long the process mapping phase takes. For smaller organisations, it may be relatively straight forward because they simply don't have many processes in place. For larger organisations, they may have complex, multi-stage processes which take a lot longer to document which again, contributes towards the costs of the CRM.

Core Feature Identification

Where possible, the client should identify core features such as customer service live chat, sales tracking and an online payment gateway as well as nice-to-have features such as email marketing automation and AI integration. The amount of must have features and indeed, nice-to-have features will also have an impact on the cost because they need to be built from scratch and usually in a specific way to align with requirements.

From here, the development team should be able to create the definitive scope with timescales, milestones and different phases of the project to be approved by the client.

The Design

High Level Design

Following the approval of the scope, the development team will then look to pull together a high level, conceptual design of the CRM including the structure, how it's used and the key features it will include. This will be used as the basis for the system and so, it is incredibly important that the client and development team are involved in equal measure.

Technical Design

The development team will then need to create a technical design for the architecture that will underpin the CRM. This will likely include the database design, software frameworks and integration points as well as the technology stack to be used. The workflows and automation rules that will drive the CRM will also need to be designed and can be as customised as much or as little as required.

Because the environment and requirements have already been mapped, the developers will understand what technology/frameworks etc they can and cannot use in order to make the system as effective as possible.

User Interface

The UI design should also be created at this stage based on the clients requirements, ideally generated from feedback from the actual users. The possibilities are endless but it is important to note there is very much a relationship between the level of customisation and the CRM costs.

The Development

Backend Development

At this point, the CRM is ready to be built. The first step here is for the developers to set up the back end system which will include implementing the server side logic, structuring the database(s) and introducing any APIs that are required for the CRM to function as specified. Here, costs are going to be driven by paying for the time of the backend developers.

Frontend Development

Following the backend element of the CRM being developed, the frontend or the customer facing interface is then built encompassing the required features to provide a tailored and positive user experience. Here, costs are of course going to be driven by the hours required of the frontend developers.

Integration & Customisation

Once both ends of the CRM have been developed, the development team will then look to undertake the integrations needed for the CRM to function and communicate as expected. These integrations could include email, payment platforms and accounting tools. The customised features would also be implemented at this stage such as bespoke reporting, automation of tasks for sales and marketing etc. Again, the volume and complexity of the integrations and features in question will more than often than not impact the total cost due to the man hours associated with actually completing the integrations and developing the features.

Testing, Deployment & Post Deployment

Testing

The extensiveness of the features and functionalities of the custom CRM software will dictate the testing plan. However as a minimum, there are four key areas that should be tested. Firstly, testing to a unit or component level. This allows each of the modules that make up the CRM to be tested in isolation to ensure there are no component specific issues.

Secondly, the integrations should be tested to ensure they work and allow for data to be exchanged as expected.

UAT or (User Acceptance Testing) follows which is an opportunity for the users themselves to test the system to ensure it meets their needs and expectations.

Finally, it is good practice to undertake general performance testing in which the CRM is tested under different circumstances, also known as stress testing to ensure the system can perform under non typical circumstances. The testing plan should be agreed with the development company in advance so you know what to expect in terms of how comprehensive it will be. Generally, the developers will include testing as part of the wider quote based on the hours and/or days they expect to spend on this, absorbing any costs for any additional hours whereas some may charge for the hours they spend on testing exactly.

Deployment

Once the testing is complete and the system is confirmed to be working as it should be, it needs to be prepared for deployment. Any data that needs to be transferred from an older system i.e. existing clients, to the new CRM is now ready to be migrated (note - this may happen earlier, depending on the specific requirements).

When the data migration is complete, the new environment is ready to be stood up with the necessary configurations in place. It's wise to have a roll back plan in place here in case of any issues.

The CRM system will then be deployed. This may be done via a phased approach or to all users at once, again, depending on the specific requirements and the risks and/or benefits associated with each method.

If there are issues with the deployment that are caused by aspects not disclosed to the development team upfront, additional costs may be incurred for additional time needed and vice versa - if there is a problem with the deployment due to something the developers have or have not done, they may be happy to absorb the cost.

Company wide user training may be undertaken at this point, assuming there have already been a group of users trained to help with the testing of the system prior to go live. Again, the training may happen at any stage of the process depending on the circumstances. Some companies may wish to have all users trained prior to deployment and some may wish to undertake training once the system is actually live and ready to use. Generally, companies have dedicated resource working on the project alongside the developers who become experts at navigating the system and companies will often choose to have these individuals undertake the training internally. However, development companies may offer training options as well and will do it on behalf of the client.

Post Deployment

Following the deployment of the bespoke CRM, there should be a period of monitoring with a focus on performance, identifying and fixing bugs and making enhancements where possible based on user feedback and gradual performance data collection.

If not already undertaken, documentation relating to the CRM should be created. This should include the technical aspects such as the architecture, codebase, APIs and integration points as well as any user documentation including manuals and training resources to allow new staff to be onboarded easily. The documentation should be detailed enough to ensure the system can operate in the absence of key staff members or indeed the original developer team.

In addition to the activities listed above that generally follow in the immediate period succeeding the rollout, there may be on-going activities that continue indefinitely, all of which will affect the cost of the bespoke CRM in the longer term -

Support & Maintenance Ongoing maintenance and technical support including updates and security patches. These are usually additional costs although some companies may provide a specified number of months free following the deployment.
Continuous Improvement Identify areas for further optimisation and development based on continuous user feedback of the existing tools and any changes within the business
Future Additions Establish a feedback loop with the users to gather input on an on-going basis which can help shape future additions and/or enhancements to the system.

Comparison with Off-the-Shelf CRM Solutions

From a pricing perspective, there are a number of important differences between bespoke and off the shelf CRM systems that impact the overall cost.

We have already covered the key differences between the two types of systems here which also provide the main points that affect the cost of the CRM. Here we summarise the key takeaways -

Upfront Costs

Bespoke CRMs will typically have higher initial costs. This is due to the fact the system is being custom built, from scratch. The components that make up the system are tailored to meet the specific needs of one business and their current or target operating environment rather than multiple businesses, which of course requires significant time and resources,

On the other hand, off the shelf CRMs usually offer lower upfront costs because they are solutions that have been developed to appeal to a wide range of users often across different industries with standard features that have been included to be attractive to as wide a group as possible. These systems have also already been developed so there are no 'development' costs required generally although these costs may be accounted for elsewhere.

Customisation and Flexibility

Bespoke CRMs are completely customisable (because they do not yet exist!) allowing businesses to build exactly what they need in the way they need it. This will add to the cost of the system due to the complexity of the development including potential integrations, to ensure it is built to fit in with the clients specific requirements.

Off the shelf CRMs offer limited customisation and have a more one size fits all approach with limited integration capabilities for other bespoke software systems. Thus, additional costs may arise if customisation or non typical integrations are required if they are accommodated at all. This can be problematic for clients whose businesses need to introduce new processes and/or features as they evolve.

Long-term Costs

Bespoke CRM costs are generally split into two core parts - upfront costs for the development & implementation of the system and ongoing costs for maintenance, support and future updates unless the client wishes to undertake those activities in-house or via another third party.

Off the shelf CRMs generally offer a subscription-based or licensing pricing model, which covers any updates, support and maintenance that the vendor deems necessary. It is important to note here that this is at the vendors discretion as opposed to when and what the client requests. These recurring fees can add up over time and will often exceed the costs associated with a bespoke system over the longer term.

Conclusion

To conclude, the cost of a bespoke CRM is highly variable and depends on numerous factors, including the complexity of features, integration requirements and ongoing maintenance requirements. Whilst bespoke CRMs do generally involve higher upfront costs due to their custom-built nature, they offer unlimited possibilities through open-ended customisation tailored to a business’s specific needs. Over time, these systems can often cover their costs in terms of value when compared to off the shelf solutions, which, though initially cheaper and quicker to implement, may well incur higher long-term expenses due to limited customisation, integration challenges and of course, recurring licensing fees. Ultimately, the decision between a bespoke and off the shelf CRM should be guided by your business’s unique requirements, long-term goals and budget considerations.