CRM, SFA, AI and Data projects are often given to large SI’s who overcharge, underdeliver.
Business Architecture includes delivering an ROI and if possible, create self-financing projects.
Agile processes would be followed to make an Agile Requirements and Lean Business Case document. The objective is to produce a return on investment and look for ways to have projects self-finance.
This table provides illustrative cost estimates for a CRM/SFA project, Cloud based, for 1,000 end users, comparing Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and a custom-built solution. All values are in USD. The Custom built approach is 20-35% of the total costs of other platforms.
| Cost Category | Salesforce (Est.) | Microsoft Dynamics (Est.) | Custom Built (Est.) | Custom Built % (vs SF / Dyn) |
| Development costs | $1,248,000 | $1,248,000 | $320,000 | 26% / 26% |
| License costs | $1,500,000 (annual) | $1,200,000 (annual) | $200,000 (annual) | 13% / 17% |
| Operating costs | $225,000 (annual) | $180,000 (annual) | $0 | 0% / 0% |
| Change Request costs | $75,000 (per request) | $60,000 (per request) | $20,000 (per request) | 27% / 33% |
| Total costs | $3,048,000 | $2,628,000 | $520,000 | 17% / 20% |
| Cost / User / Year | $3,048 | $2,628 | $520 | 17% / 20% |
| Cost / User / Month | $254 | $219 | $43 | 17% / 20% |
| Yearly license Fee increase | $105,000 | $84,000 | $0 | 0% / 0% |
What most clients don’t realise is that larger platform vendors will increase their license fees by 5-10% per annum for SaaS deployments. They will also take significantly longer to build, customise or integrate the applications and platforms.
