I can't be the only one who looks at the western border of Montana on a map and sees the profile of Richard Nixon.
Seeking open-source CRM, accounting tools
In some projects for friends-and-family clients, I'm investigating open-source, Web-based software solutions in these categories, and hoping my site-visiting friends can point me to more options.
- Accounting: I'm checking out WebERP, and it seems powerful, but focused on wholesale or retail businesses that keep inventory instead of service businesses. Know of good options for those?
- CRM: So far I like the looks and guts of SugarCRM Community Edition, but it may be overkill. Not that I can't "switch off" unnecessary features for a client, but administering all of SugarCRM just to use part of it seems inefficient. Am I wrong about that? Any simpler solutions out there?
In all cases my ideal solution would be based in PHP with a MySQL database, and would either already be ready to integrate with the Drupal site system (as in, connector module already exists), or easy enough a caveman could do it (sorry, Geico).
Please leave any advice you have in the comments, and thanks in advance!
Open source accounting question
Can I ask what it is you're looking for from an open source accounting solution? The reason I ask is that we provide a free web-based accounting solution for service-based, self employed folks (gobootstrap.com). We're looking into additional API options, so I'm intrigued by your question. What would an open-source solution do for you?
Thanks,
Kevin
It's for a client
A friends-and-family client, who runs an insurance agency, wanted to upgrade the accounting procedures for the agency office, which has six employees/agents.
I started checking open-source solutions that I could install and configure for the client in a secured LAMP environment at low cost. Since I wrote this post, I checked out most of the reputable suites, and none seemed to be a good fit for this type of business without major modifications. I believe the client is going to go with a QuickBooks enterprise solution tailored to the agency.
Open-Source CRM
Greetings Jay. Hope you are well.
Last year we kicked off a new approach to local online sales (initially dubbed Revenue Rampage). The idea is to build a consultative relationship with local businesses, to lead them forward with whatever digital-marketing tools they need. Search marketing, SEO, email marketing, lead-gen, online ads, social networking...lots of arrows in the quiver.
The challenge was managing these long-term relationships with many points of engagement and a diverse mix of products and services.
After a lengthy search, we settled on Sugar CRM. It's comprehensive and adaptable.
http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/community/sugarcrm-community.html
Hope this helps!
And see you in Vegas, no?
-- Jeff