CRM Software - Open Source / Free / Shareware Needed!

[darren13]

Hey guys,

Just a quick q - this seems to be the forum that closest matches my question, although please move me if there is somewhere more appropriate!

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good open source CRM piece of software - we run a small holiday cottage firm in the New Forest, and need to log enquiry information, note details of special requests/notes, and then generate a letter or two confirming booking deposit and balance received etc.

Oh, and as a bonus, would be good if it was platform independent, we work on Mac and PC, oh, and maybe it could come complete with a kitchen sink!

Thanks in advance for any info or links to other sites which have info.
Darren.

[Conficio]

Hi,
have you looked at SugarCRM and its evil cousin vTiger?

Those are PHP based and run relatively o.k. Although they require you to adjust to their way of thinking, and I find them by far not intuitive. So, may be SugarCRM is the better resource as it has more training , etc. available.

K<o>

[bobchrist]

I would suggest for ACT; http://estore.act.com/ProductInfo.as...d=ACTSM2007_ES

[joshua_snl]

Originally Posted by darren13

Hey guys,

Just a quick q - this seems to be the forum that closest matches my question, although please move me if there is somewhere more appropriate!

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good open source CRM piece of software - we run a small holiday cottage firm in the New Forest, and need to log enquiry information, note details of special requests/notes, and then generate a letter or two confirming booking deposit and balance received etc.

Oh, and as a bonus, would be good if it was platform independent, we work on Mac and PC, oh, and maybe it could come complete with a kitchen sink!

Thanks in advance for any info or links to other sites which have info.
Darren.

Hi Darren,

SugarCRM - as pointed out earlier - should do the trick but because it is open source, some fiddling around may be required. You might need to hire someone to help you to set it up and configure it properly. That is not so difficult but can be time consuming.

The real challenge would be to customize it to your business - which is more difficult - because most people end up adjusting tor how the CRM works instead of customizing it for their business.

Joshua

[sally]

Hi Darren,

Which is the CRM software u r using now? SugarCRM? What's ur thought on it?

[flsurfkarma]

We use SugarCRM and I like it.

[darren13]

Just a quick update on my experience with Sugar Open Source so far -

Sugar Open Source Crm works okay for contacts, project info etc. Installed okay on our webserver, just need to make sure you have the right versions of php and mysql provided by your webhost - sugar gives a list of min system requirements..

I had to design a custom front end in Access, and setup a separate Mysql db on the webserver, to accomplish the estimates, invoicing and quotations requirements we have. I now have an Access form with tabular layout for this purpose, designing queries and output reports in Access as required also.

For the Access front end to work I needed a secure tunnel (which I use Putty for), the separate mysql db for the estimates/invoices/quotations set up on our webserver, the local vista/xp machines needed odbc drivers for mysql installed - oh, and I think Sqlyog comes in handy too.

In short, if you've got a few years database/web development behind you, then you can customise Sugar yourself (or more accurately as I did, essentially adding on extra modules / databases). Or you take what they offer for free. Or you pay them annually for the package that suits your needs.

I'm currently looking at using php to accomplish the same thing entirely via the web browser. It feels a bit like re-inventing the wheel sometimes, but I spent literally hours and hours looking for something which does exactly what we want, and couldn't find it. Sugar was about as close a match as I found. Either I compromise on functionality, pay for someone to do it for us, or I do it myself.....it's keeping me out of trouble at the moment anyway!

Darren