SugarCRM is open source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software that can be run on Windows or Linux machines, usually a server. As SugarCRM is web based it can be accessed by any machine with a web browser connected locally or if set up for internet access by any machine with browser and an internet connection. SugarCRM for Microsoft Windows requires the open source software Apache Web Server, MySql Database and PHP (commonly known as WAMP) or alternatively with the same but Linux instead of Windows (LAMP).LAMP or WAMP can be easily installed by XAMPP Functionality includes sales force automation, marketing campaigns, support cases, project management, calendaring, documents and more.
As well as the free to download and use version SugarCRM provides the software as a commercial offering which can include additional features and support including an On Demand (hosted) version. SugarCRM is arguably the most well known and successful of all open source business software companies with over 600 paying customers with over 10,000 users (BDO Siedman have over 9000 users) of the commercial system. About 90,000 people are using the free version. SugarCRM is often supplied as an example of how an open source company can have a successful business model.
Getting a look at SugarCRM is relatively straight forward as there are full installers available as well as a whole virtual setup that you can run from a virtual environment player such as Vmware. Even more straight forward you can have a look at a demonstration online. As with a lot of open source products SugarCRM have regular worldwide Webcasts (presentations and demonstrations over the web) which can be viewed live or after the event.
SugarCRM has a very active community and information can be found at Sugarforge, there are many active projects integrating SugarCRM to Enterprise Document Management (e.g. Alfresco) and Content Management (e.g. Joomla) to name just two. SugarCRM is used all over the world and has been translated into 44 languages. Due to its success many CRM products today are found topo be based on a version of SugarCRM including vTiger, it is also included in many open source projects including the well known PBX (Private Branch Exhibition to run your own business telephone network) Asterisk@home now know as Trixbox.
Founded in 2003 SugarCRM is currently on Version 4.2. They currently have over 1,000,000 downloads of the open source version of their product. Sugar Open Source use is bound by the SugarCRM Public License, a derivation of the Mozilla Public License
Summary
Platform
Installation – Windows, Linux (Solaris and BSD should also work with Apache, MySQL and PHP)
Browsers – Firefox (all platforms Windows, Apple Mac and Linux), Microsoft Internet Explorer, on Apple Mac Camino has had some good reports but Safari appears unreliable.
Hosted Service
Yes – Commercial
Well known Users/Case Studies
BDO Siedman, Case Studies
Proprietary CRM Competitors
salesforce.com, Netsuite
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