"We have a tool that helps build and maintain a relationship [and we're] really in a people business," he said. "It's not a system we [want] to have sales and marketing people spend their time feeding information into. It's to help them work more efficiently [which] keeps company costs down and helps us to be more competitive."

For those businesses looking to make CRM work, de Klerk recommends firstly identifying objectives for what you want CRM to accomplish.

"Involve management and various operators, including sales, in the implementation so any customizations are done up-front," he said. "To roll out a system into which very few people have input isn't really going to get the support of the employees."

Salesforce.com's Asia-Pacific vice president of operations, Doug Farber rejected any concerns of ongoing development and support issues with the company's hosted CRM application.

"We are publicly listed and have had a fantastic history of success," Farber said. "Some of the largest organizations around the world use Salesforce.com [and] our viability is extremely strong."