In the world of customer relationship management (CRM) Salesforce is currently on top. According to a Bloomberg article on Salesforce Q1 earnings report: “The company had 19.6% of the market in 2017, according to industry research firm IDC. Oracle was No. 2 with 7.1%, and SAP SE had 6.5% Microsoft and Adobe rounded out the top five.”

Through the years, interesting alternatives to the top players have emerged, such as SugarCRM, Nimble, Pipedrive and Insightly. A common similarity among these smaller vendors is how they often specialise in specific functions and can be more customisable. It’s still early days, but it’s worth asking if they have the potential to disrupt the market significantly?

>See also: CRM will be the fastest growing software market in 2018 

A key concern for any business leader thinking about adopting a CRM system, particularly for growing and larger businesses, is whether not employees will use it as intended. A study by Forrester, in 2017, found that 43% of respondents didn’t understand the challenges of gaining acceptance of the new CRM.

“CRM initiatives can spiral out of control into multimillion-dollar investments that negatively affect your customers and the employees who serve them. The cost of poor adoption is twofold: underutilised investment and unmet business objectives,” wrote Kate Leggett and John Bruno in another Forrester report, CRM Success Hinges On Effective Change Management.

Insightly prioritises usability and user adoption for their platform. The company’s latest update includes custom; objects, apps, reports and dashboards.

>See also: 6 key advantages of ERP and CRM software integration

Anthony Smith, founder and CEO, Insightly: “Gone is the era of one-size-fits-all applications. We hear this loud and clear from our customers every day, and this new functionality gives them the total flexibility they need to implement their CRM exactly the way they want to.”

“As we continue to quickly acquire larger-sized customers, they are flat-out demanding that we offer these types of capabilities right out-of-the-box, or else they simply don’t consider us a viable CRM alternative for the long term,” added Smith. “This latest release of our software is a game changer for our customers and for us.”

>See also: The growing importance of sales and CRM apps