I am considering using some CRM application. I looked at the others, like Salesforce.com, and am not convinced the cost is worth it to me. I wanted to bring onboard someone to help me out with sales, and use the CRM software to coordinate our efforts. Has anyone used SugarCRM?
I have used both SugarCRM and Salesforce. I am not particularly enthralled with either, but I do not have a large number of customers to manage. The major differences between the two are Salesforce is almost exclusively a tool for sales relationships, while SugarCRM offers a lot of account management and project management tools. I would recommend SugarCRM over Salesforce if you are managing sales and also need project management tools. The user interface for SugarCRM is also better, although it tends to be a little crowded. SugarCRM also has a lot more tools than Saleforce, but that could be viewed as a negative instead of a positive depending on your situation. I have also found that SugarCRM has overlooked some basic functionality that it should have included, such as e-mail or pop-up reminder settings for meetings, for example. I am also in touch with a technical developer who has worked with SugarCRM and may be able to host this application for you. Please e-mail me, if you are interested.
I've used both SugarCRM and Salesforce.com. I have a couple other solutions you might want to review/consider before deciding. The first is called vTiger (vtiger.com) and the second is Group-Office (group-office.com). I have installed all the OS options and all are pretty easy to use/install. Each of the applications have pros/cons so it just depends on which one meets your needs. I think the most robust one is vTiger and I've found it very user-friendly. Hope this helps and let me know which one you decide to use.
What are your needs peter, what kind of functionality in specific are you looking for? We use SugarCRM here in the office, and overall I find it pretty good, I wrote a review of it on my company's blog site (http://blogs.sourcio.com). It's the most mature open-source CRM, and probably the easiest one to use too. But maybe that's not what you are looking for, if you want to coordinate your sales efforts then maybe you want something with a more powerful contacts module and a better calendar. In the following days I will be posting a review of Centraview on that aforementioned blog. Centraview is also an open-source CRM, not quite as easy to use or as mature as Sugar, but the features that may be important to you, the contacts and calendar modules, are better in my opinion.