Armies of consultants…

I liked Eric Doyle’s article in Computer Weekly earlier this month. It was the most sensible piece I’ve read about on-demand (software that people subscribe to as a hosted service rather than purchase outright and install on site) CRM in some while. Well grounded though it was, there were still some echoes of what I’ll term the ‘armies of consultants’ argument that I’ve seen espoused by on-demand fans in various other less reasoned articles lately.

The ‘armies of consultants’ argument goes along the following lines – and recognise I exaggerate a bit here – why would you Mr small/medium sized business owner purchase on-premise enterprise CRM software, when as a result you will be besieged by legions of consultants, charging millions in fees, who will spend years developing a system, that you will have to house in a data centre of improbable enormity, and which will produce no ultimate business value because by the time it’s delivered your business will have long moved on, when you could have the very same capabilities on-demand for just £50 a month and be up and running by lunch-time.

Ignoring the fact that this line of reasoning grossly exaggerates both the cost and complexity of enterprise CRM implementations, and the ease and speed of on-demand ones, I find it bemusing that the debate seems polarised around just the two options for small and mid-sized CRM customers – bloated expensive old enterprise CRM, or hot and happening, virtually cost free, on-demand CRM. It completely ignores the raft of mid-market CRM vendors offering on-premise solutions (or indeed applications that can be on-demand or on-premise) specifically designed for the needs and budgets of small and mid-sized businesses.

I’m not trying to pitch into the on-demand vs on-premise debate, suffice to say that both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses, and neither is universally superior in all circumstances. But I would just like to remind a few authors and analysts, that in the real world of small and mid-sized businesses, the real-life decisions are between the on-demand and mid-market vendors. The ‘armies of consultants’ story might make good marketing copy, but it doesn’t reflect the realities down in the trenches.

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