Cloud Computing to Continue to Grow in the CRM Market

Thursday, August 5, 2010 by Julie Stankey

Saugatuck Technology recently released the findings of their 2010 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) survey via a whitepaper sponsored by Sage, “Software-as-a-Service: Managing Key Concerns and Considerations.”  One of the key findings of the survey indicated that by 2012 50% of small and midsized businesses will have adopted a SaaS-based or Cloud-computing CRM system.

Although growth in this market-space seems certain, there are still some concerns with the SaaS platform that are shaping the decision making processes of those adopting Cloud-based CRM solutions.  According to Saugatuck, the top three concerns that SMBs weigh when selecting a Cloud CRM solution are:

• Data security and privacy
• Data and transaction integrity
• Customization for unique business requirements

Although data security and privacy is far and away the greatest concern for most SMBs, very few take into consideration the security and privacy gains that can be attained through a single-tenant system vs. a multi-tenant system.  Only 8% of respondents indicated that they would take multi-tenancy into consideration when selecting a cloud-based CRM solution, despite the fact that a single tenant system would improve security and eliminate the chance for data to accidentally be migrated from one company to another, which is possible on a multi-tenant system.

Whether this is due to confidence in the multi-tenant system’s security, a lack of knowledge of the differences between single and multi tenant systems, or a cost-savings on the multi-tenant systems that outweighs the risks, is not addressed in the paper.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know how multi-tenancy vs. single-tenancy factors into your CRM cloud computing decision.