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When it comes to customer relationship systems, businesses have the choice of a prescriptive gourmet blowout or a fast-food fix. But Russell Loarridge of Firstwave Technologies argues that most mid-sized businesses today need the equivalent of your favourite restaurant - something that is built by the chef around your unique tastes and requirements delivered in a reasonable timescale and with excellent customer service.
 
There may be times when you want a 'Hilton' experience - a five-course meal, with the finest delicacies cooked with consistency regardless of where you are in the world. You are happy to bow to the Corporate trained chef- for him to tell you how this epicurean delight should be prepared to best effect - and will also readily accept the pricetag for the experience.
 
If you're a major multinational corporation, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suppliers are adept at providing this type of experience. You pay for their expertise, and to be associated with the big name. And you accept that you will have to change your business processes to fit the solution you have been provided.
 
At the other end of the market are those organisations that just want their meal 'out of the box'. They need a takeaway solution, a fast-food fix, and technology to go. You can see the attraction for a company that simply wants 10 or 20 seats' worth of a customer contact system, and they want it yesterday.
 
Yet.the vast majority of businesses - the medium-sized enterprises - need a different type of solution; one that doesn't dictate a specific and different way of working and won't cost the earth. They are companies that are big hitters in their field, who know their own markets, and are each in some way unique in the way their business is designed. Arguably, it is this very uniqueness that has elevated them to a position of strength in the mid-market.
 
Most businesses at this level don't want a huge technology rollout - they are simply planning for the next few quarters. Three- or five-year plans are on ice, and businesses want to be more efficient today.
 
For this reason the mid-market craves technology solutions that mix the quality and excellence of the gourmet solution with the basic out-of-the-box functionality and takeaway timescales of the low end. But it also needs that little something which will 'personalise' the solution and make the technology work for and with them - not vice-versa.
 
There are three main areas that always need customising when businesses opt for a CRM system.
 
The first is interoperability with other systems, in particular legacy systems. They require a solution that will seamlessly integrate with the existing infrastructure. No business can come to a halt while its customer contact solution is customised, personalised and implemented. Flexibility, speed, and ease of deployment are critical to allowing an organisation to continue building its customer relationships, even while its vital new system is being implemented.
 
The second area of customisation is workflow and business automation. Multinational corporations might be able to reformat the business around a piece of technology: they can afford such 'big picture' thinking, and the world will take notice. Equally, a very small business where most, if not all the employees might be involved in, or have visibility of, a customer contact solution, can afford to reinvent its technology and business practices overnight. That, however, is not the way the majority of organisations work; they need a solution that has the functionality to do the job they need it to do - and in the way they want to do it.
 
And last, but by no means least in the customisation game, is the company culture. This is the tricky one, as it involves getting buy-in from the top right down through every level of the organisation. Again, this means a solution that can be tailored to suit the specific needs of every person in a range of departments across the company.
 
This can only be provided by a CRM partner who can also provide an out-of-the-box set of tools that can; customise swiftly and appropriately for the customer's unique demands, provide a solution that interoperates now and not months down the line, - and deliver a solution within weeks that has been specially prepared to the customer's individual taste.
 
For most of us, then, neither an internationally standardised gourmet repast, nor a takeaway space-filler is appropriate. When it comes to CRM systems, big corporations can always afford the gourmet option, by choosing to dine at high table with the big suppliers and their consultancy partners. It's not just a technology rollout, it's a long, slow, expensive, red carpet rollout.
 
At the other end of the market, small businesses can always go for out-of -the-box fast food, and look for the big 'M'. With a handful of users to satisfy, they want a solution that they can buy and deploy without thinking. You'll find the big 'M' on every street corner.
 
But when all is said and done, aren't the gourmet and the takeaway experiences very much the same: "You'll get what you're given!"? It's just the price tag and how long you wait for your meal that is different. You'll eat there once in a blue moon and only when you have to.
 
When it comes to your favourite choice, usually the one you recommend to your friends, the winner will always be the restaurant where you get your meal prepared by the chef himself, the owner cares what you think of the whole experience, and they always cater for your unique tastes & preferences.
 
It's the same when it comes to CRM. For the majority of businesses, it's about that vital mix of basic functionality combined with flexibility, adaptability, and ease and speed of rollout.
 
They need business partnership, and delivery in weeks, if not days. They need instant functionality, but which can be customised and prepared to their individual needs. And they need a solution that works with their existing investments in people first, and in systems second.
 
What's required is the Egon Ronay (well-known UK restaurant critic) of mid market solution vendors, or just take a recommendation from a friend.