An end to end solution with seamless integration capabilities

Pros

SAP CRM is a very robust product and SAP has done well over the past decade to cater to the CRM needs of customers across industries. The best part of SAP CRM is that it not only integrates seamlessly with other SAP softwares but also with various non-SAP softwares providing options to enterprises to keep using certain legacy systems at the same time. CRM solutions in general are very customer centric and SAP has done exceptionally well over the past few releases to come up with advanced features like Social Media Integration to capture market vibe in a more structured and organized fashion. While some of the core CRM modules keep getting better with frequent bug fixes, focus has been on adding new features to cater to industry specific needs. Another important aspect of this software is its ever improving UI. Since CRM 7.0 there has been considerable change in the UI which I should say is extremely friendly now. For customer who want to deploy SAP CRM solution faster, SAP provides them with Rapid Deployment Solution which reduces the implementation time and cost drastically. SAP CRM Best Practices are now successfully used across industries as a proven tool to successfully run business. SAP CRM on HANA platform has made data retrieval a very quick and hassle free affair. SAP also has a great community of developers and professionals who help to share ideas and answer questions when it comes to configuring and customizing their solutions. Another important thing is that for customers who do not want to invest in huge IT infrastructure , SAP CRM comes as an on demand (cloud) solution with most of the features from its on premise version.

Cons

SAP CRM releases newer version at a relatively slower rate than most of its competitors. Configurations in SAP CRM backend still remains pretty complex and require highly skilled and experienced professionals to do so. Though SAP CRM can be used as a standalone product but the usability is drastically reduced when SAP ERP is not implemented. Standalone SAP CRM analytics is very basic in its present form and cannot cater to customer need without complex customization.Lastly, lets face it, SAP solutions are still heavily priced compared to other vendors and quite understandably SAP CRM consultants are pretty expensive to hire.

An application that best suits external portal and UI users

Pros

I have worked on SAP CRM version 5* and 7* as a SAP Security Administrator and following are my observations -

- Customer relationship management (CRM) focuses on the retention of customers by collecting data from all customer interactions with a company from all access points.

- SAP CRM provides user flexibility with sales, service module and also external consumers (3rd party vendors).

- It is easily integrated with various SAP and non-SAP products like Identity management (IDM), 3rd party tools and ECC system

- User access and administration is controlled through business roles maintained in SAP CRM system

- Configuration required for running the various models (sales, consumer, etc) is maintained in ABAP backend in SPRO

- Also, it is rated very high in terms of its Scalability and real time analysis and monitoring of Sales (provides a holistic view as needed)

- Web UI (User Interface) helps user to enable & utilize business functionality extensively at one single point of source through replication process of business partners

Cons

I would say the user experience for SAP CRM Web UI in terms of usability and acceptance is not that great (user friendly), it's a bit complex at times.
Also, the cost of installation, product keys, maintenance, operational cost is high

But, SAP CRM 7* versions have much better usability and has improved a lot from it's previous pre-predecessors.

SAP CRM powerful tool, but huge.

Overall it is excellent to track customer concerns, questions, orders and contacts. It's just minor things like the time it takes to complete a task, and you have to search very specifically or you will get a lot of hits, or no hits at all.

Pros

SAP CRM is very useful for maintaining notes on customer issues, orders, etc. It will link directly with SAP, and now you can pull actual specs from SAP right in CRM. It makes customer interaction easier with 'tickets' if multiple people have to interact with a customer.

Cons

CRM can be doggedly slow. It is a huge amount of information that it has to chug through, so it takes some time. Be careful not to hit the 'back' button at the top of the browser page like you usually do, or you may anger it. You have to click the tiny back button in CRM itself. The auto log out if you haven't used it for about an hour is kind of annoying.

Customer focused comprehensive product by SAP

I would like to recommend this product to the business owners whose revenue is over a million dollars at least. Maintaining this product is easy.

Pros

The most important feature of this product is WebUI. You can configure the WebUI all the way you want - Navigation bar, report area, etc. Moreover, this product supports One-Order Framework. Every transaction type is processed in a single transaction code. This provides user an ease of access.

Cons

There are not major drawbacks of this product, but to provide comprehensive and end to end business solutions, this product must be integrated with other SAP products like SAP ERP, BI/BW, PI/XI, etc. Licensing cost is more, so small business need to consider pricing before planning implementation.

Why SAP CRM is better when it works with others.

Pros

I think that the idea of SAP CRM is brilliant, a way to house and store data so that your company can really get a handle of data mining which theoretically would allow you to plan and be more proactive vs reactive.
Once you get the hang of the screens it is easy to understand how to accomplish what you're trying to input into SAP CRM.
The system is really set up to help you try and capture the most relevant information to your business.

Cons

As I said the idea of SAP CRM is brilliant but from my experience (and it could be the way my company chose to implement it) the use of so many different platforms that don't actually talk to one another is a ridiculous way to implement any data capturing tool. We had to export from two different systems of SAP CRM and then load it into a BIOD just to get the information to talk to each other and make any sense. And even then the project itself was a long and exhausting process because trying to figure out the language it speaks in the Order Entry system vs. the Customer Inquiry system isn't the same and you have to force it to mesh the data together.
The screens are cumbersome and not user friendly. There are so many different ways you need to input information to get to the screen that you actually want you need a manual for literally everything you have to do because it takes that many steps.
I think SAP CRM would benefit from focus groups for their North American business partners. Not everyone does business the same but North America has big business's that would greatly benefit from this type of system if it were easier to understand and implement on a day to day basis.

We had 3 years working with SAP to integrate it with an electronic commerce platform. It was a free.

The benefits were economic. By being able to integrate it with an Opensource application of E-commerce we achieve the client's goal. We achieve the objectives and with that we increase our profits.

Pros

We improve our income as we integrate SAP ERP with new sales channels such as e-Commerce, managing to merge it with PRESTAHOP increasing revenues in the final customer.

Cons

The high costs of each module of SAP make many companies migrate to other solutions, in our case the client preferred to integrate the solution with an E-COMMERCE Opensource instead of acquiring the license of the manufacturer's own module, since it was practically impossible to maintain over time for their prices.

One of the best CRM Software to use for large companies

Hignly recommended. As stated above, this is one of the best CRM Software to use for large companies. I have used it with my last two employers and though there were a few changes, the software was still easy use.

Pros

This is one of the best Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems to use for large companies. It is very user friendly when assigning and updating projects. It is also very useful in documenting projects for yourself and anyone the reviews said projects in the future.

Cons

Sometime the product numbers that are assigned can be very confusing. The number sequence can be off and cause a little confusion when searching in your own project list.

Quite ROBUST!

Pros

SAP products are top of the line. Very robust, but I'd much rather have too much at my fingertips than not enough. Very convenient to have so much in one place, instead of disjointed in different tools. Absolutely love the software.

Cons

Only thing I can say that could be seen as a negative is that it takes a while to "get down." For someone who has never used CRM before, it may take some extra care in training. But the wealth of information in one place is priceless. I'd rather take time training someone for this tool and have impeccable efficiency than easy training in multiple tools and sacrifice time.

Truthfully user friendly.

Do consider how much your transactions and operations and also on the complexity level of your company, so that, it is worth of money to be using this software.

Pros

It is a value of money when it is being used for a company with complicated and huge transactions. The users able to customize by their own on the template or layout without having any assistance from the consultants unlike the other application. It is best to know that this software is best to promote paperless documentation and the users being able to work on it while staying at home.

Cons

Since, this software is expensive and the process is complicated compared to the other simple software, it is not suitable to being used in a small company or a company that is having less operation and transactions.

SAP CRM has everything an organization needs to deal with Customers

Pros

There are a lot of back end settings that make SAP CRM one of the best CRM software out there. It can be customized and tuned whether the organization implementing it is a utilities company or an FMC i.e. it caters the needs of all kinds of organization.

Cons

Need highly qualified personnel to implement the CRM. The scope of implementation has to be carefully and properly defined with proper documentation at each stage of implementation. Any undocumented modification can result in a lot of garbage in the system within no time.

360 degree of customer with full SAP CRM cycle

Pros

It has most of the part in configuration side which is release with the new model. Most of the things are now based on wizard which helps to understand the creation perfectly with less chances of error. The vendor has already customize and provided solution in the form of standard codes so we can just use it to further customize the system based on the requirement given by the client. It has come up with new features which are easy to implement and less complicates.

Cons

If the full lifecycle of SAP CRM(Marketing, sales, service) is implemented for any customer then it is always great because you don't have to depend on any other system for any other job. The thing which could be more better is the WebUi part, it could be something like webdynpro where everything is configuration and system populates everything for you.