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Open Source CRM for small office

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  • 22-01-2009 4:48pm
    #1
    Arcee
    Registered Users Posts: 359 ✭✭


    Can anyone recommend some open source customer relationship management software for a small office - eg, 2/3 people? We're just looking for something that we can link in with our website and content management system to store info entered by customers through online forms as well as customer data gathered offline.


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    #2
    An Fear Aniar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,377 ✭✭✭An Fear Aniar


    You might find this helpful

    http://www.insidecrm.com/features/top-open-source-solutions-121307/


    .


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    #3
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    Most people when they say CRM mean they either need Sales Force Automation (SFA) software to manage their sales leads or the need a customer Support type solution to track and manage customer quires or "tickets". Do you fit into either of these? or do you wish both?

    SugarCRM is probably the best best known open source CRM. But it's one of these so called "commercial" open source projects that offers a basic system that allows you to capture and manage Leads & Opportunities... but when you need to crystallize these opportunities with quotes for actual Product that become Orders then you need to look to their "professional" (and non-free) offering. vTigerCRM is a less polished looking (but still nice) fork of sugarCRM that includes these functionalities.

    Both include basic customer support management. Allowing the capture & management of support cases/tickets.

    Which content management system do you use? Because both sugarCRM & vTigerCRM can be integrated with the Joomla! CMS to allow web users to register and indicate an interest (to create a Lead), as well as open & check their customer support cases. "info entered by customers" is a little vague so that may be what you want and maybe not.

    Projects like Adempiere include full blown ERP functionality supported by some CRM functionalities... but that sounds a bit more than you want or need.


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    #4
    scribs
    Registered Users Posts: 244 ✭✭scribs


    You might like to check out salesforce.com.
    In particular take a look at the web to lead function. It allows you to capture information your prospects fill out on your website directly in Salesforce. This is standard functionality.

    You may also like to take a look at the web to anywhere function.


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    #5
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    scribs wrote: »
    You might like to check out salesforce.com
    Not Open Source though!


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    #6
    ProvTech
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3 ✭ProvTech


    Arcee wrote: »
    Can anyone recommend some open source customer relationship management software for a small office - eg, 2/3 people? We're just looking for something that we can link in with our website and content management system to store info entered by customers through online forms as well as customer data gathered offline.

    Hi Arcee, we are the SugarCRM partner for Ireland. We provide hosting & support for all versions of SugarCRM including the community edition. The Community Edition would allow you to use Web to Lead forms from your website easity enough and does not require a license to use. Have a look at this link for more info on what features the Community Edition has(Click Here). Please feel free to contact us if you want any further info.
    Kindest Regards
    Provident Technology


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    #7
    bobo1969
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1 ✭bobo1969


    We have tried using Sugar CRM and have found it to be a bit shakey/flakey - anything else out there ?


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    #8
    ProvTech
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3 ✭ProvTech


    bobo1969 wrote: »
    We have tried using Sugar CRM and have found it to be a bit shakey/flakey - anything else out there ?

    Hi Bobo1969, can you let me know which version you tried? We have commercial customers such as Quinn Direct with over 3.5m records, and the NHS in the UK using Sugar, and its by no means unreliable. Considering you are getting a commercial product for free (albeit without some functionality that is useful to businesses) it is really a great offering! Sugar CE is currently on Version 5.2a and the next big release of 5.5 is due at the end on the next quarter.


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    #9
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    bobo1969 wrote: »
    We have tried using Sugar CRM and have found it to be a bit shakey/flakey - anything else out there ?
    Have you found the quality bad or is it lacking functionality?


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    #10
    JustOk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9 ✭JustOk


    I know that people are talking about open source crm here, but frankly speaking there are two major crm players - salesforce and microsoft dynamcis crm. They both have invested a lot in research, so you can be sure that their crm will cover all of your needs now and in the future.
    As i said, they are not open source. It would cost about 60 euro per user/month for full-featured MS CRM (its fully integrated into outlook). Salesforce is a bit more expensive (for the same features as microsoft). Microsoft has two versions - hosted and on-premise so it gives you an option to move from one to another if you need to. Salesforce is on-demand (hosted) only.
    if anybody is interested in crm (features, functionality, etc) please let me know. I am a heavy user of Microsoft dynamics crm. So any questions are welcome!:)

    regards,
    Victoria


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    #11
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    JustOk wrote: »
    They both have invested a lot in research
    Funny, I thought MS bought dynamics from someone else?
    JustOk wrote: »
    JustOk wrote: »
    you can be sure that their crm will cover all of your needs now and in the future.
    Oh yeah? You can guarantee that can you? I'm sure those users of peoplesoft, Baan, JD Edwards to name just a few thought the same. The only real way to ensure your future is to chose FOSS products.

    The point is with FOSS you can run something equivalent for zero recurring cost (and let's face it every penny counts these days), with zero risk of vendor lock-in, and because the source code is available zero risk that your chosen product will be sold into obsolescence or simply discontinued. All that and a open market place for services around your product of choice this freedom is what open source provides. And of course the price of the CRM product is only part of the cost if you decide to host dynamics yourself. Then you pay for MS Server, SQL Server, Exchange and who knows what else. With FOSS CRM solution is is possible to use this technology stack but it is also possible to use a free, secure, stable stack .. if that's what you choose.

    Integration with your email client of choice is common in FOSS CRM too!
    And lets face it MS don't exactly have a reputation for security... not sure I would wish to rely on them to ensure the security my data.

    Why anybody would pay license fees these days is beyond me!


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    #12
    oscarBravo
    Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 28,792 Mod ✭✭✭✭oscarBravo


    JustOk wrote: »
    As i said, they are not open source.
    Then stop pimping the damn things here. This is the Open Source forum. I can see how you could confuse that with the "Pimping non-Open Source products" forum, but stop it now.


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    #13
    JustOk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9 ✭JustOk


    croo wrote: »
    Funny, I thought MS bought dynamics from someone else?
    JustOk wrote: »
    with zero risk of vendor lock-in, and because the source code is available zero risk that your chosen product will be sold into obsolescence or simply discontinued.

    Croo, do you realy think that such monsters as Microsoft or Salesforce can be locked-in or discountinue their products?
    as for your quote re licenses cost, yes, if you are implementing CRM for a big organization, then its better to go ahead with on-premise crm and you will have to buy ms sql, exchange, etc., but with hosted deployment you get the same full-featured crm for a fixed price which is not very expensive even these days.
    thanks for your comments anyway.
    regards,


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    #14
    JustOk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9 ✭JustOk


    oscarBravo wrote: »
    Then stop pimping the damn things here. This is the Open Source forum. I can see how you could confuse that with the "Pimping non-Open Source products" forum, but stop it now.

    Dear Oscarbravo, thanks for your comments. I am not pimping non-open source products, I am just sharing my thoughts. Is it proxibited to do so?


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    #15
    JustOk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9 ✭JustOk


    croo wrote: »
    Funny, I thought MS bought dynamics from someone else?

    Sorry croo, forgot to say, no MS did not buy dynamics from anybody, it created it by itself. It started with version 1.2 (I think), then they had 3.0 and the latest one (released last year) is 4.0.


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    #16
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    Really?
    Aha, I see MS Dynamics is not one product but many
    * Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Axapta)
    * Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains Software)
    * Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision)
    * Microsoft Dynamics SL (formerly Solomon IV)

    And there is also Dynamics CRM, so perhaps they developed piece from scratch ... or perhaps they bought something else as they did in all of the above cases. I was involved in CRM (development & implementation) for most of the 90s & early 00s - I was aware of all of the above but I'd never heard of MS CRM, hence my assumption they had bought it. MS are after all not known for coming up with good ideas but rather polished marketing of other peoples.


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    #17
    oscarBravo
    Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 28,792 Mod ✭✭✭✭oscarBravo


    JustOk wrote: »
    Dear Oscarbravo, thanks for your comments. I am not pimping non-open source products, I am just sharing my thoughts. Is it proxibited to do so?
    When your thoughts are about products that are not Open Source, then you can share them to your heart's content somewhere else.

    This forum is for the discussion of Open Source software. The software you are discussing is not Open Source. Is there some part of that that's unclear to you?


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    #18
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    oscarBravo wrote: »
    This forum is for the discussion of Open Source software. The software you are discussing is not Open Source
    Indeed oscarBravo, I should have let the point go and not continued the discussion. Apologies.


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    #19
    JustOk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9 ✭JustOk


    thanks guys for your advice.


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    #20
    squibs
    Closed Accounts Posts: 975 ✭✭✭squibs


    Great thread - it got me looking at vtiger, which has decent features without being too bloated. I installed it locally, and seems to do what I need.

    What are your thoughts on installing a web based CRM package like this on shared hosting (maybe on a subdomain)? I like the idea of a multiuser web-based system, but am concerned about security.


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    #21
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,334 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    I think you are right to be concerned... everything carries some risks these days. I did see this http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2008/2471
    which rates the risk low but acknowledges vulnerabilities.

    Perhaps the safest thing might be to create an intranet using vpn or a firewall that restricts access to your list of MAC addresses or something like that - it is possible to be remote & secure - perhaps it's even worth considering paying someone to host vtiger if they offer guarantees of security! But there are always threats, the thing is to be aware and understand the risk - perhaps you data has commercial value but your competitors are unlikely to be hacking you - so what is the real risk? If someone got to see your data what could they do? If you had bank accounts & credit card numbers the risk would be very high - but if you have just a list of orders & invoices ... well so long as I had a backups I wouldn't be necessarily worried. I would like to know I was breached however.

    I would recommended checking the vTiger forums/community and asking there!


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    #22
    squibs
    Closed Accounts Posts: 975 ✭✭✭squibs


    Cheers - I've been meaning to look into VPNs for a while. I decided to set it up for the main user on localhost with a standard XAMPP install for now.


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