2 types of CRM you need to understand

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Instead of focusing on complexly categorizing groups by features, I will use the concept of external CRM (major companies abroad) and domestic CRM (CRM made in Vietnam) to help you classify in the simplest and most memorable way.

External CRMs often have a high level of depth and specialization in terms of features, like a race car or a truck. A race car focuses only on “speed,” and a truck focuses only on “load capacity.”

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You can see an example in the figure: the Marketing subsystem - external CRM manages both identified and unidentified customers along with scoring mechanisms and personalization. These features are almost non-existent in domestic Marketing software.

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Meanwhile, domestic CRMs tend to expand horizontally in a “jack-of-all-trades” style, like a three-wheeled vehicle: capable of carrying both goods and people.

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Foreign enterprises have very high specialization; they divide the management and operation processes of the company into many sub-processes. For example, “Prospect to Lead,” “Lead to Order,” “Order to Cash,” "Procure to Pay"… Each of these processes is usually handled by one or a few subsystems, so they are specialized. The features work smoothly because there are already conventions on “outputs” and “inputs,” as well as limitations on the features of the subsystems.

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Consider a value chain in the manufacturing industry that Oracle has abstracted with software modules to see the task assignment and smooth coordination according to international standards.

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In Vietnam, the process is still very rudimentary, so specialization is low, plus the mindset of “handymen” (doing whatever comes to hand, saying “yes” to whatever the customer needs) and the boundless creativity of customers have created a generation of mixed software.

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Therefore, instead of having ERP, CRM, and HRM, where each subsystem performs specialized functions, a domestic CRM might include both ERP and HRM functions.

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However, it’s not just about domestic and foreign CRMs. There are foreign CRMs that are like domestic ones, and there are domestic CRMs that are like foreign ones. What I mean is that we should not equate all CRMs with the word “domestic” (developed by domestic companies) and “foreign” (developed by foreign companies). Many CRMs (as well as other software) developed domestically are standard, high-quality, and ready for export “to bring money home to mother.”

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Conversely, many foreign companies produce CRMs with low quality and a very “rickshaw and three-wheeled vehicle” approach. After “winning over CRM,” I hope you will have an answer to the question “So what is the most suitable CRM software” for yourself.

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You can read the book “Winning Over CRM” by author Nam Nguyen - CEO of OplaCRM to discover more interesting things!

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