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Linux Business

CRM for Linux? 27

Posted by Cliff from the how-much-difference-does-a-year-make dept.
diwolf writes "I've looked high and low, but haven't found a real Customer Relationship Manager for Linux. I used to use ACT! for Windows (bad word, blah, blah, blah), and loved it. But, I can't find anything similar on Linux. Does this mean I have to dust off my progamming skills and write my own? Or, is there an ACT! clone that's GPL'ed and just waiting for my download?" A ZDNet article from over a year ago also makes this point stating that Linux "still falls short when it comes to supporting workloads required by applications like ERP (enterprise resource planning), business intelligence, CRM (customer relationship management) and supply chain planning". Now it's a year later, and SourceForge has racked up an impressive array of CRM related projects. For those with experience with some of these Linux CRM solutions, how well do they stack up to other well known offerings in this arena?
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CRM for Linux? More

CRM for Linux?

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  • I'm not an expert in ERP and CRM, but I believe I recently saw a press release from the Dutch ERP vendor BaaN [baan.com] that they are going to support their 'iBaaN' platform on Linux. Maybe worth a look?
  • In THEORY you can use this on Linux: You need a web server, and you can run GoldMine Everywhere. http://www.frontrange.com/goldmine/fo2000_gmes.asp You can then use PalmPilots, or a web browser to access your customer data ANYWHERE.
    • you might run into a problem doing it this way. How would you configure, customize and admin the db.. You can't do this thru the web tools. True, you can view your data, but you'll still need to have one Windows machine to get the db set up. both Goldmine and ACT are the same in this regard.

  • Disclaimer: I am not particularly savvy when it comes to CRM or stuff like that.

    However, by looking at the sourceforge list, it looks as if there is an overlap of different projects trying to achieve exactly the same thing. Am I right in thinking this? I guess that a good package, which is easy to customise (maybe using python or scheme, and maybe using point-and-click approaches for some tasks) would be really useful.

  • Begging your pardon, you're a bit confused (Score:3, Interesting)

    by biglig2 ( 89374 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @10:05AM (#2861687) Homepage Journal
    ACT isn't a CRM system. CRM means a big fancy database with lots of business logic behind of it, customised to you, with a big price tag.

    ACT, however, is a Contact Management Application.

    Basically it is a "PIM-on-steroids" for the seriously heavy user - the salesman who's contact list is his life blood and who needs the best possible tool to handle it, something that goes beyond a PIM.
    • sorry, but I have to disagree. CRM can be the heavily integrated kind- true- ACT cannot integrate with your JDE system for example. But, ACT does track sales and is capable of some great reports on its own, or you could use Crystal Reports to get data that would rival if not surpass anything you could do with JDE world writer. ACT can handle synchronizing data for a nationwide sales team and call center- tracking sales and customer contacts. Hardly a PIM on steroids. More like an affordable solution if you don't happen to be big business.
      • Well, certainly ACT is nifty. But you'll agree it is at the bottom end of the market.

        I was really trying to point out the extraordinary disparity between what diwolf is saying "anyone got an ACT clone for Linux?" (which you can answer with the traditional cry of Google/Freshmeat is your friend) and how Cliff was interprting it "does Linux still fall short when it comes to supporting workloads required by applications like ERP , business intelligence, CRM , and supply chain planning" which is a more interesting point for a slashdot discussion, but not the question that was being asked.

        These are two very different questions.
  • I'd say it's time to dust off your programming skills and code your own. Picture this: Apache, MySQL, and your choice of web programming tools, and viola, your own customizimable linux CRM solution that will work on any system with a web browser.

    I was able to get a working system working in under 2 weeks and made it pretty and ready for production use with one additional week (but that's because I love PHP).
  • There are ERP solutions for Linux without a doubt. Just don't expect a free one. I work with MFG/Pro from QAD QAD [qad.com]. Runs great on Linux!!!
  • I've downloaded and tried about a dozen or so titles from SourceForge that 'claim' to be CRM's. Some of them are close, but are lacking key features that I think all CRM's should have (that is, client records are related to appointments, to-do's and notes and comments).An awful lot claim to be CRM's, but are really PIM's in disguise (very much Outlook like).

    With CRM's, I believe that the devils in the details. I need to be able to keep track of my customers and know what we spoke about 6 months ago, and plan for follow-ups - without having to retype their name and phone # each and every time I schedule a callback or an appointment. Most CRM's on Sourceforge missed the boat and became Groupware.

  • There isn't, and for a while there won't be. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DavidpFitz ( 136265 ) on Friday January 18, 2002 @12:28PM (#2862675) Homepage Journal
    CRM on Linux (or any Free OS) is a long way off. It's not a technical reason, it's just that CRM is a very expensive business (Think $30k for a Siebel [siebel.com] licence (per seat) and then the big servers that sit behind it. I've seen Siebel implementations that use 6 E10K's to drive it. Really.

    Problem is, big businesses are going to want to use Oracle on Solaris, and since they do, people like Siebel, SAP and Oracle (with their own CRM offerings) are always going to tune (and tie) their systems to Oracle on Sun (almost always.)

    So, for the moment, the only way you're going to see enterprise level CRM software on Linux is through a browser front end.

    It really sucks, since all that's needed is a fairly thin client to get Siebel working on Linux. Come to think of it, that part of it couldn't be that hard to port... but it still leaves you tied server-wise.
  • You can run all parts of SAP (R/3, CRM, BW, etc) on linux. Including the databases Oracle/SAPDB/DB2 your choice.
    I'm not 100% but the cadillac of CRM, Siebel also runs on linux.

  • CRM? (Score:3, Informative)

    by SuiteSisterMary ( 123932 ) <slebrunNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday January 18, 2002 @04:00PM (#2864074) Journal
    A CRM is the thing that ties into your phone system, and brings up the customer info as soon as you pick up. A CRM is the thing that brings up 'similar problems' as you type in whatever your customer's problem is, as you do it. A CRM, out of the box, is something like 30 to 50 percent complete; the rest you need customized. You might be looking for a server-side address book, you might be looking for an incident tracker, you might even be looking for bugzilla. But if you're looking for a CRM, you're talking heavy duty shit.
  • Well I was wondering about CRM for linux myself.
    I wrote a simple Web based contact manager program
    using MySQL and Perl. sense-warner-200.oz.net/perl/contacts.pl
    Now I have been thinking about writing something
    CRMish. Just ordered the CRM handbook from bookpool. Have never seen a real CRM system. Not so sure what they do, hence the book order.
    Can anyone in Seattle show me a real CRM System?
  • Check out solutions available on Lotus Domino [lotus.com]. Domino is available for Linux and runs very well, and provides plenty of other services as well.
  • All you who say there is no high-class CRM for Linux, pay attention:

    Compiere.

    http://www.compiere.org

    Mozilla License. Enterprise-class ERP/CRM (okay, the CRM is a little lacking, but the ERP is awesome).

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