What is the meaning of CRM software?
Customer relationship management (CRM) software serves as the central hub for managing all interactions between a business and its customers. CRM systems:
- Store contact information.
- Track communication history.
- Manage sales pipelines.
- Analyze customer data to improve business relationships.
Why invest in CRM?
Organizations that invest in proper CRM implementation often see measurable improvements in customer retention, sales efficiency, and overall business performance. These benefits explain why companies across industries prioritize CRM as a critical business system.
A comprehensive CRM system provides a single source of truth for customer information across marketing, sales, customer service, and other departments so businesses can deliver consistent experiences throughout the customer journey.
CRM development today
Modern CRM development focuses on creating systems that:
- Provide actionable insights.
- Automate repetitive tasks.
- Facilitate collaboration between teams.
When implemented effectively, CRM software becomes the foundation of successful customer-centric strategies.
Business benefits of using a CRM system
Organizations that implement effective CRM systems gain significant advantages across multiple business areas:
- Improved customer retention: Businesses create loyal customers when they use CRM software to track customer preferences and past interactions. Telcos can use CRM to identify which customer contracts are ending and proactively offer personalized renewal options.
- Increased sales productivity: CRM systems automate routine tasks and provide sales teams with complete customer information. They can equip a manufacturing company’s sales representatives with product availability and purchase history directly during client visits.
- Enhanced cross-departmental collaboration: Magic happens when marketing, sales, and customer service teams access the same customer data. Healthcare providers with integrated CRM systems can provide care coordination across different specialists and departments.
- Data-driven decision making: When CRM tools generate comprehensive reports on customer behavior patterns, it’s easier to make smart decisions. Retail businesses analyze CRM data to optimize inventory based on customer purchasing trends and seasonal demands.
- Streamlined customer onboarding processes: Well-designed CRM workflows make it easy to get customers up and running. Sophisticated CRM systems can reduce account opening procedures from days to minutes while maintaining compliance requirements.
These benefits demonstrate why organizations continue to invest in CRM development and optimization. The right CRM system becomes integral to business operations rather than just another software tool.
How do CRM systems work?
CRM systems function by centralizing customer data and providing structured workflows for customer-facing activities. At their core, these systems collect, organize, and analyze customer information to support business processes across departments.
Many organizations face challenges with their current CRM approaches:
- Traditional CRM software often requires extensive customization to match specific business needs, which typically involves significant development resources and time, creating a backlog of requested changes.
- Off-the-shelf CRM products provide ready-made solutions but frequently lack the flexibility needed for specialized processes, which means adapting workflows to match software limitations rather than the other way around.
- Some companies attempt to build complete CRM systems using no-code. Their quick deployment is offset by their limitations when integrating with other enterprise systems or implementing complex business logic.
Low-code CRM development addresses these challenges by combining visual development, reusable CRM templates, and cloud-native CRM components with professional coding capabilities.
This approach enables organizations to:
- Create custom CRM solutions that precisely match their requirements.
- Maintain the ability to integrate with existing systems.
- Avoid development constraints.
Low-code platforms provide the foundation for CRM innovation.
Discover why low-code platforms are part of a new era in software development
The impact of low-code in CRM innovation
Low-code technology fundamentally changes how organizations approach CRM software development and enhancement. By reducing the complexity of creating custom applications, low-code platforms enable faster implementation of new CRM capabilities.
Companies using low-code for CRM innovation report significant improvements in development time and business alignment:
- With low-code, three developers rebuilt the CRM systems of electronic tolls provider Via Verde to deliver better customer experiences, increasing customer adoption by 400%.
- Manufacturing companies use low-code CRM applications to connect sales activities with production planning, giving sales teams accurate delivery estimates based on real-time production capacity, increasing customer satisfaction and order accuracy.
- Field service organizations implement low-code customer relationship software so that technicians with mobile access can complete customer information, such as service details, customer feedback, and equipment status directly at the service location.
Low-code CRM development also facilitates rapid adaptation to changing business requirements. When regulatory changes affect customer data handling, organizations using low-code platforms can quickly update their CRM systems to maintain compliance without disrupting operations.
The flexibility of low-code development makes it particularly valuable for CRM systems, where customer expectations and business processes frequently evolve. Organizations can continuously refine their customer relationship software without the constraints of traditional development cycles.
Check out all the benefits of using low-code development
Combining OutSystems low-code with your CRM system
The OutSystems AI-powered low-code platform enables your team to deliver the custom apps and agents that future-proof your business. With support for the whole software development lifecycle and the ability to build AI agents without advanced coding, the OutSystems low-code platform makes every step of development faster, easier, and ready for the enterprise.
Find out why OutSystems is a low-code leader
OutSystems also provides specialized capabilities for creating and enhancing CRM software. Organizations use OutSystems to develop complete CRM systems tailored to their specific requirements or to extend existing CRM platforms like Salesforce with custom functionality.
OutSystems enables seamless integration between CRM systems and other core enterprise applications. As a result:
- Customer data flows across the organization, eliminating information silos that hamper customer experience.
- Financial services companies like DNB Bank use OutSystems to connect their CRM software with core banking systems, improving customer experience across the whole business.
- Development teams appreciate how OutSystems accelerates CRM system creation through low-code while maintaining the flexibility to implement complex business logic when needed.
- IT departments deliver CRM solutions that precisely match business requirements without compromising on quality or maintainability.
- The platform's enterprise-grade security and scalability make it suitable for managing sensitive customer data in regulated industries, such as healthcare providers, while still providing seamless experiences.
Organizations that have CRM challenges find that OutSystems provides the ideal combination of development speed and technical capability. Whether creating a complete custom CRM from scratch or extending an existing system, the platform enables sustainable innovation without technical debt.
Learn more about the benefits of using OutSystems to build CRM software and other core systems
Frequently asked questions:
CRM software refers to Customer Relationship Management software that helps businesses manage interactions with current and potential customers. These systems centralize customer information, track communications, manage sales processes, and analyze relationship data. Effective CRM software connects marketing, sales, and customer service departments with shared customer insights.
CRM system costs vary widely based on several factors. Entry-level CRM tools may start at $10-15 per user monthly, while comprehensive enterprise systems can exceed $150 per user monthly.
Custom CRM development typically requires initial investment but often provides better long-term value by eliminating unnecessary features and precisely matching business requirements.
Organizations should consider total cost of ownership, including implementation, customization, training, and ongoing maintenance when evaluating CRM options.
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems manage internal business processes across departments, including finance, manufacturing, HR, and supply chain. CRM systems focus specifically on customer relationships, sales processes, and marketing activities. While ERP systems provide an internal view of business operations, CRM systems concentrate on external customer interactions. Many organizations use both systems together, with ERP handling operational processes and CRM managing customer-facing activities.
The three main types of CRM include operational CRM, analytical CRM, and collaborative CRM.
Operational CRM handles daily customer interactions and process automation. Analytical CRM focuses on data analysis for business insights. Collaborative CRM facilitates information sharing across departments and external partners. Most comprehensive CRM systems incorporate elements of all three types, though organizations use one type more than the others based on their specific business objectives.
Yes, organizations can build custom CRM systems. Low-code development platforms are ideal for building custom CRMs because they reduce technical complexity while maintaining flexibility.
Custom CRM development provides precise business process alignment, seamless integration with existing systems, and elimination of unnecessary features. Organizations should evaluate their technical capabilities, resource availability, and specific requirements when deciding between custom development and commercial CRM products.
Selecting the right CRM system involves identifying your specific business requirements, evaluating available options against those requirements, and considering factors like scalability, integration capabilities, and total cost of ownership. Start by documenting your customer management processes and defining clear objectives for the CRM implementation. Consider immediate needs and future growth plans. Involve stakeholders from sales, marketing, customer service, and IT in the selection process. Finally, evaluate vendors based on product capabilities, implementation support, and customer references from your industry.
CRM systems improve customer problem resolution by providing complete interaction history, centralizing customer information, and enabling structured problem-tracking processes. Support agents gain immediate access to previous communications, purchase details, and service records when addressing customer issues. This comprehensive view eliminates repeated information gathering and allows for faster, more personalized problem resolution. Additionally, CRM systems can identify recurring issues through data analysis, helping organizations address underlying problems rather than just symptoms.