The late great baseball player Yogi Berra stated, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
While it may be tough for any company, including software platforms, to make predications about the future, the development team at WelcomeHome designed our CRM from the very start to be as future-proof as possible.
Characteristics of future-proof software
What does it mean exactly to be future-proof? Collins Dictionary defines future-proofing as “you design or change it so that it will continue to be useful or successful in the future if the situation changes.”
In the BrowserStack article, “What is Future Proof Testing? Why is it Important?”, author Sakshi Pandey explains that two of the most important characteristics of future-proof software systems are changeability and dependability:
Changeability: Technology constantly evolves and will continue to do so in ways that cannot be easily foreseen. A software system designed to be future-proof may not know what changes in technology will occur five years from now, but it is designed to have a low resistance to change.
Dependability: In a software system like a CRM, Pandey explains that reliability means the software “can be relied upon, has resilience to any disruptions or defects, and in the event of an issue, it handles the errors gracefully by minimizing damage.”
Both of these characteristics are possible when a software platform is web-based, or more accurately, is Software as a Service (SaaS). The software is running at the company that provides it instead of on the hard drive of your desktop computer or a server in your company’s network.
Benefits of a future-proof senior living CRM
When a senior living CRM is designed with changeability and dependability, it offers senior living providers some major benefits:
Savings
A CRM that is always up to date and at the cutting edge of technology saves your company the expense – in time and dollars – of switching to a new CRM when your current one becomes obsolete.
Integrations
In senior living, the ecosystems of software platforms that fall under health and billing management, marketing automation, incoming leads, and miscellaneous business productivity are constantly changing. A senior living CRM that is future-proof is continually introducing and maintaining integrations with all of the platforms you rely on to keep your senior living communities operating.
Upgrades
Future-proof software platforms demonstrate the developer’s commitment to adapting to change, continuous testing, and providing ongoing support via upgrades, patches, and training. Plus, choosing an application that is web-based means that you don’t need to download the latest version of an application when the old one no longer functions well, isn’t supported by the developer, or has security vulnerabilities.
Scalability
When thinking about the future, it’s essential to consider not just the changes that will happen on the software provider’s side but also what might happen within your own senior living organization. What would it mean if your organization doubled or quadrupled in size? Is your current CRM scalable to accommodate that many more communities and users, or does it have an upper limit on either, above which it would no longer be effective?
Security
Cybercrime – including hacking and malware – is a threat that grows increasingly sophisticated and damaging as time goes on. The only certainty about cybercrime in the future is that it will continue to plague businesses. A future-proof web-based senior living CRM means that the CRM provider is ever-vigilant to emerging threats and is able to implement changes – “patches” – rapidly for all users. That vigilance also means that your data is backed up and secure, ensuring a future without cybercrime-related business interruptions.
Are you in the market for a new CRM that's ready for whatever the future may hold for technology? WelcomeHome is a future-proof CRM built specifically for the needs of senior living communities. With its intuitive user interface, recommendation engine, and clear workflows, the WelcomeHome CRM is a powerful tool for both users in the community and owner/operators. Experience what thousands of senior living professionals rely on to make their job easier: request a free demo of WelcomeHome’s CRM today.