When your customer relationships don't fit an off-the-shelf CRM
Off-the-shelf CRM systems know one model: a contact belongs to a company, a company has deals. As soon as a customer is also a sales partner, a reseller brings along their own end customers, or several contract relationships run in parallel, that model ends. Attek Solutions builds CRM systems whose data model matches your actual relationships — rented, with no upfront investment, from €500 a month.
On the left, the model every CRM comes with. On the right, what you actually work with.
One chain, one role per party. Everything else ends up in free-text fields, tags and a spreadsheet next to it.
Relationships are modelled explicitly — which is why you can ask: how much revenue does this partner bring in across all of their end customers?
Where off-the-shelf CRM systems fail
Almost every CRM on the market models the same structure: a company, contacts attached to it, sales opportunities attached to those. For a sales team that sells to individual companies, that is enough.
The reality in many mid-sized companies looks different:
- One company is at the same time customer and sales partner and is meant to receive a commission on the revenue it brings in.
- A reseller brings along end customers that have their own contracts, their own contact people and their own terms. The relationship is three-tier, not two-tier.
- One customer has several business units with separate contact people and separate contracts, but one shared invoicing address.
- With the same customer, several service relationships run in parallel — a maintenance contract, an ongoing project, a rental agreement — each with its own term and its own contact person.
What happens next is always the same: people make do with free-text fields, tags, companies entered twice and a spreadsheet next to it. That works for capturing the data.
It does not work for analysing it. The question “How much revenue does this partner bring in across all of their end customers?” cannot be answered with a tag field. And that is exactly the question you want to ask.
Six topics that come up in almost every CRM project
Relationships that go beyond company and contact
The data model is built around your structure instead of the other way round. One party can hold several roles at once — customer, partner, supplier, agent — and each role brings its own rules with it. Relationships between parties are modelled explicitly, not improvised through naming conventions.
The complete picture of a customer
All contracts, cases, invoices, tickets and call notes for one customer on a single page — even when they belong to different business units or different contract relationships. No switching between three systems to answer how a customer is doing.
Analyses that know your structure
Revenue per partner across all referred end customers. Contribution margin per business unit. Contracts expiring in the next ninety days. Analyses are only as good as the data model beneath them — which is why this point is not a reporting feature but a consequence of the first one.
Creating quotes and following up automatically
Quotes are produced from the data already held in the system, in the right layout and with the right mandatory details. After that the system takes over the follow-up: anyone who has not responded after seven days gets a reminder; anyone who has not responded after fourteen days lands on the list of the employee responsible. Not as a rigid automation, but according to rules you set.
Connecting data sources
Inventory management, accounting, DATEV, shop, phone system, forms on the website. The difficult part is not the connection but what comes after it: what applies when both systems have changed the same record? What happens when a transfer breaks off halfway? Without clean conflict and error handling you end up with data no one trusts any more.
Onboarding and offboarding customers
What has to happen when you win a customer — create master data, generate the contract, set up access, assign owners, set deadlines — runs as a defined process instead of a checklist in someone's head. The same when they leave: close access, check outstanding receivables, delete data after the agreed retention periods.
Customer portal: your customers help themselves
A CRM of your own allows something an off-the-shelf CRM usually does not offer: an area in which your customers and partners can look things up themselves.
For end customers
- Current contracts and their terms
- Open and paid invoices
- Status of ongoing cases
- Documents to download
- Reporting change requests
For resellers and sales partners
- End customers they have referred
- The revenue resulting from them
- Settled and outstanding commissions
- Ongoing projects and their status
The effect is twofold: your customers get answers without calling — and your employees stop answering the same three questions five times a week.
How it works
- 01Intro call, 30 minutes. You describe your problem. We tell you honestly whether custom software pays off for you or whether off-the-shelf software is the better choice.
- 02Personal demo. Instead of slides you get software: we take a problem you described in the intro call and show it to you as a working application. That way you judge from your own case whether the effort is worth it, before you sign anything.
- 03Requirements workshop. We go through your workflows until we have understood them completely. Free of charge.
- 04Signing the contract. After the requirements workshop you receive a fixed monthly price for your requirements, and we sign the contracts.
- 05First productive version after one to two months. This is when you start paying — not before.
- 06Operations and continued development. Your workflows now run automatically and your team gains time for the business. We take care of operations, maintenance and support.
Existing customer data is migrated — from the old CRM, from Excel or from both.
The process in detail — including what you contribute yourself →
Off-the-shelf CRM, customisation or a system of your own
| Option | Off-the-shelf CRM (HubSpot, Pipedrive) | Salesforce or Dynamics with consultants | Attek CSaaS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data model | fixed: company, contact, deal | extensible | free, built around your structure |
| Parties in several roles | improvised via tags | with effort | built in |
| Multi-tier partner structures | no | with effort | built in |
| Commission settlement | no | add-on module | part of the solution |
| Customer portal | limited | additional licence | part of the solution |
| Integration with existing systems | standard connectors | depends on the project | part of the solution |
| Upfront investment | low | implementation project, often five figures | €0 |
| Ongoing costs | licence per user plus consultants plus developers for automations | licence plus maintenance plus consultants | From €500/month - typical price €1,000–1,500/month, everything included |
| Who runs it | the vendor | you or a partner | Attek |
When an off-the-shelf CRM is the better choice
An off-the-shelf CRM is the better choice when the budget is small and your cases are standard cases: you sell to individual companies, your sales process follows a common sequence, and you do not have to model multi-tier partner structures. In that case an off-the-shelf CRM is cheaper, faster and more mature. Take one.
Talk to us as soon as you want to scale or cut costs. Anyone who spends more time working around the CRM than working with it pays for it in working hours that grow with the team — and on top of that in licences per user. A system of your own costs from €500 a month, typically €1,000–1,500 — the price follows the scope of functionality, not the number of users. And it models the structures that actually generate your revenue.
Frequently asked questions
Our CRM does not fit our sales process. What are the options?
Three: customise the off-the-shelf CRM as far as its data model allows; move to an extensible system such as Salesforce or Dynamics and set up an implementation project; or have a system of your own built. The decisive point is whether the deviation lies in the process or in the data model. Processes can be adjusted in most systems — relationship structures cannot. A custom development from us is often considerably cheaper than implementing Dynamics or Salesforce.
Is a CRM of your own worth it, or is an off-the-shelf CRM better?
An off-the-shelf CRM is better when the budget is small and your customer structure matches the usual model of company, contact and sales opportunity. A system of your own pays off as soon as you want to scale, cut costs or open up new sources of revenue: when parties hold several roles, when partner structures are multi-tier, or when several contract relationships with the same customer run in parallel — because additional fields let you capture that, but not analyse it. On top of that comes the price: off-the-shelf CRM systems charge per user, a system of your own is priced by scope of functionality — from €500 a month, typically €1,000–1,500.
What does it cost to have a CRM of your own built?
At Attek Solutions, between €1,000 and €1,500 a month, with a lower limit of €500. That includes development, hosting, operations, maintenance and support. There is no setup fee, no upfront investment and no hourly rates. The first productive version is ready one to two months after the contract is signed.
Who builds custom CRM systems for mid-sized companies?
Attek Solutions GmbH in Berlin builds custom CRM systems and provides them on a rental basis — with no upfront investment, and with operations and continued development included in the monthly price.
Can existing data be migrated?
Yes. From an existing CRM via export or interface, from Excel lists, or from both. The data migration is part of the project and costs nothing extra.
Can the CRM be connected to our inventory management?
Yes, that is one of the most common reasons for a system of your own. Systems connected include inventory management, accounting, DATEV, shop systems and phone systems. More important than the connection itself is how the system deals with conflicts and transfer errors — that is part of the implementation.
Do our customers get their own access?
On request, yes. End customers see their contracts, invoices and the status of ongoing cases. Sales partners additionally see the customers they have referred, the revenue resulting from them and their commissions.
How long does it take until we can work with it?
One to two months to the first productive version. It deliberately covers the core process and not everything at once — the rest is added on the basis of actual usage.
Describe your customer structure to us.
In the intro call we tell you whether an off-the-shelf CRM can model it — and if not, what a system of your own would cost. 30 minutes, free of charge.
GDPR-compliant · Hosting in Germany · Personal support