| W. Chris Shank on 5 Feb 2007 14:45:01 -0000 |
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I've stuck with the LAMP CRM systems, such as sugar, vtiger, and now info@hand. I didn't make it clear that IAH is not free. yes, it's not free. it is however, worth the price. vTiger is actually a fork of the original sugarCRM (version 1 or 2 I think). i've actually been in the code of both sugar and vtiger, and now IAH. we almost went with vTiger because at one point they had more pieces than sugars free product (ie products). As we got into it, especially attempting to modify the code, we found it more difficult to find support - though I think the developers thought vTiger was a better organized. Ultimately, I chose to staty with sugar because vTiger seemed a little too much on the fringe (this was 2 years ago - so i don't know how they have proceeded) and we knew that we could go to sugar for support if needed. we recently moved to IAH after analyzing several products, both standard commercial and open source. If you are using sugar - IAH is a great next step because it's the same platform and code base as sugar. So we were able to easily port or modifications directly into IAH. And while IAH isn't open source, you do get all the source code (it is after all LAMP). You only need to take care that any modification you make doesn't end up getting overwritten by a subsequent patch. If all you need is some basic CRM capability - go with Sugar OSS. it's a good starting point. But as you want to move more and more of your business management into the CRM system - you'll probably need the extra features that the commercial products bring. We started with sugar back in 2004 with their initial release and have progressed through several iterations and migrations (some quite painful). so if anyone wants to chat about it more, feel free to contact me. ----- Original Message ----- From: Chad Vogelsong <chad@vogelsong.net> To: Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> Sent: Monday, February 5, 2007 1:49:39 AM GMT-0500 Subject: Re: [PLUG] CRM Open Source I checked out this software. http://www.infoathand.com Yes, it is built on SugarCRM, but it's not 100% open source either. In order to use it, you have to pay for it. The best one (so I've heard) if you want a 100% open source and free (beer & freedom), is Compiere. You don't have to pay a dime unless you want support. I think this is the best of both worlds. The business can make money and DIY'ers are not forced to pay if they don't need any support. http://www.compiere.org There is also ]Project-Open[ . I've heard good things about these guys. If I were doing an evaluation for a SMB CRM solution (< 300 employees), I would include these guys as well. http://www.project-open.org/ Another one that is not so well known, but should be looked at as well is vtiger. http://www.vtiger.com -Chad W. Chris Shank wrote: not true. the open source version is limited. The professional version introduces more features, particularly quoting and products. This ends up being a critical piece for sales. You can track opportunities and forecasting, but when your ready to get the sale - you'll need to use another system. Reporting is another component you'll miss. -- W. Chris Shank ACE Technology Group, LLC www.myremoteITdept.com (610) 640-4223 -------------------------------- Security Note: To protect against computer viruses, e-mail programs may prevent sending or receiving certain types of file attachments. Check your e-mail security settings to determine how attachments are handled. ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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