Continuing the discussion from On The Road towards NethServer 7 Beta 1:
I don’t know SugarCRM at all. Have you tried to install it yet?
We should involve @a4rgl here, he’s on top of CRM stuff
SugarCRM ( https://www.sugarcrm.com/) is the most widely used open-source CRM, with over a million users in 80 countries (or so they claim). It started back in 2004 and has a big community behind it. It has a free community edition, currently in v.6.5, and a paid pro version (currently v.7.*). Unfortunately, it seems that the official development team is solely focused on the paid version and they have stated there will be no new community edition in the future. Although it offers a lot of functionality and has lots of add-ons developed over the years, it lags considerably behind the paid version and the GUI is old-fashioned.
SuiteCRM project ( https://suitecrm.com/ )started in 2013 and is basically a fork of the CE edition of sugarCRM but has a new GUI and lots of improved features and added functionality that brings it closer to the paid Pro version of Sugar. It is being actively developed and is completely free and open-source. It also has the added benefit of working with most add-ons developed for SugarCRM CE.
The installations is very straightforward, (I used Mariadb, Apache and php5) and it is as simple as creating database and enabling a vhost for apache to recognize. they are light on resources and I believe they would add a lot of functionality to the server.
I went with SuiteCRM, mostly because it is being actively developed with future upgrades expected, and the added functionality and improved GUI.
Implementing a CRM system is not something to take lightly. With installing an application your troubles just started since CRM applications are VERY complex to configure. That’s because they need to work for every company and every company has other procedures. So the CRM application must be very flexible.
This has pro’s and cons.
Pro is definately that you can set a CRM to your own liking.
Con is that there are so many options that you not only need to be a sysadmin but also an accountant and lawyer to get all settings right for your situation.
So before you even begin to choose what application to use, you must know all the features that you want to implement. Then you need to dig into the different appliactions IF they support that feature out of the box (the hell of custom adjustments is something you want to avoid, they cost LOTS of money)
Having said that there are not too many really good opensource applications. Besides the mentioned SugarCRM there is Odoo
I honestly don’t know which of the 2 is better (and in what situation?)
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In this case, we can ask @ns_nirosh @marceloeng for help.
That’s reminds me of the time I spent with OpenBravo… wow, it’s a lot of work.
Before installing a CRM application you need to consider the business needs, both commercial and financial, then the integration with existing work processes and accounting practices, certainly if including an e-Commerce solution. This is very time consuming for everyone involved; you need to mesh several business department wishes and then select/agree on the most suitable application that is a best fit. Not easy.
I will say though that having a Customer Portal in a CRM package is a good idea - our support calls reduced over 6 months (we are not Public facing, but deal mainly with Hotel managers and Installation Teams throughout Europe and Africa). A good Customer Portal enables some amount of self-service and reduces the load on Support staff.
Because the CRM application will become the ‘core’ of most of your daily business activities, and everyone will come to rely on it, then availability becomes an issue. Not that NethServer cannot support a CRM, and for smaller businesses it is very capable, but a large company may well want to deploy a separate platform with more resources (bandwidth, memory, storage, etc) and have CRM specific administration.
Identifying a CRM application and then adding a single CRM solution to NethServer would not work in my opinion - just too many variables and there is no one-size-fits-all CRM.
I think a How-To list of popular CRM applications (or pointer to vendors’ installation documentation) and NethServer Community support from those of us that have installed or use a CRM would be helpful.
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Hi @a4rgl…
thnx for your comment and in some extend I agree with you. CRM IS complicated. But I don’t see why NS can’t be the base for a CRM environment.
NS is highly modular and nothing withholds you to install a NS instance with just a CRM application. If properly implemented, it should even be possible to make this scalable so you can have multiple servers just running the CRM service.
Hi
NethServer IS an excellent base for CRM - we are using it right now !
May be I should clarify this paragraph [quote=“a4rgl, post:6, topic:3863”]
Identifying a CRM application and then adding a single CRM solution to NethServer would not work in my opinion - just too many variables and there is no one-size-fits-all CRM.
[/quote]
The question “What CRM for NethServer” is very difficult to answer. To filter all the CRM products that are available and then have it as a one-click install in Software Center/Nethforge is an immense task. I have full confidence the Developers, and everyone else, can do this, but selecting the ‘right’ CRM product that suits is the problem.
NethServer can and does support CRM, and I would love to have multiple NethServers running my CRM application!
Maybe we should distinguish between installing and configuring a CRM. Installing is a breeze. It can easily be scripted. But as soon it is installed, the difficult part starts. And I don’t think that is within the scope of the NS developers nor the NS community.
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You need a consultant like @a4rgl for the second part.
Totally agree, let’s do it! How can we move forward?
Hi @robb
In my town Odoo is our proposal to move to SAP in government. Our project is called PRO and goes hand BachacoVE Development Community. And a few days ago we have carte blanche by the Venezuelan State.
Nethserver there already know and have shortlisted for some of our servers. Although the preference of my brothers more involved in the matter is Debian.
For those who need documentation in Spanish about Odoo our sister @g0liv3ir4 has translated part of the material in GitBook
Regards
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I used following link to install odoo 8 (formely known as OpenERP) in CETOS 7. I got so namy errors using other links. The centos7 installs epel-repos efficiently to my sense of mind. The worst thing was i coudn’t ever install it on Centos 6 based distros. But ubuntu has no issues installing odoo 8 or 7.
The reason i had chased for Odoo was, it has so many utilities to be installed as the users’ necessity. Integrating the odoo in Nethserver - - - - - - it is a huge step in Nethserver.org to support small businesses with financial basis structures. thanks
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I agree with @ns_nirosh that a CRM in Nethserver for small business would be great. I also see the different for installation and set-up. The requirement on the CRM will be different for most companies and this work has to be done fro the company which want to use it.
I was looking at different open source CRM system at the moment and didn’t know odoo. I will have a closer look.
I had a look at SuiteCRM and it doesn’t look bad. Odoo has a fresh GUI as first impression. It would be good if you could share your experience with the set-up and administration of your CRM system. This could help to decide which is the right one for the specific application as @a4rgl already mentioned.
Ehi guys, who of you have tried with such CRM on NethServer yet? We can collect some notes to install them on NethServer and share them with people.
- SugarCRM
- Odoo
- SuiteCRM
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/ftfy
Here an overview of several Linux compatible, opensource crm applications: http://alternativeto.net/software/openerp/?license=opensource&platform=linux
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I didn’t find the time to test a CRM. Is still on my ToDo list.
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Hi guys, I installed the Odoo on Nethserver 7.2 by the help of following link.
http://linoxide.com/linux-how-to/setup-openerp-odoo-centos-7/.
I was only stuck at the firewall configuration. the firewalld was not enabled but iptables was.
But i couldn’t run SERVICE IPTABLES SAVE command. then I configured it through the admin web panel.
Anyway Odoo works fine. The total number of Modules is showing nearly 5000 in Odoo Application tab. This may be a good news to who do prefer to work with Nethserver+ERP environment.
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For firewall configuration please read this chapter from the manual:
thank you very much Davidep
That page was outdated! I just updated it with systemd commands!
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