Comments on: Getting up and running with a CRM http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/07/12/getting-up-and-running-with-a-crm/ Dave Neary's view of the world Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:32:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Jeff Schroeder http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/07/12/getting-up-and-running-with-a-crm/comment-page-1/#comment-291 Jeff Schroeder Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/07/12/getting-up-and-running-with-a-crm/#comment-291 <a href="http://www.compiere.org/">http://www.compiere.org/</a> is the most mature ERP/CRM system available and blows sugar away. I won't even bring up the fact that Sugar is quasi-evil in that they changed from MPL to the Microsoft Shared Source License and so shouldn't really be considered OSS software. http://www.compiere.org/ is the most mature ERP/CRM system available and blows sugar away. I won’t even bring up the fact that Sugar is quasi-evil in that they changed from MPL to the Microsoft Shared Source License and so shouldn’t really be considered OSS software.

]]> By: Dave Neary http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/07/12/getting-up-and-running-with-a-crm/comment-page-1/#comment-292 Dave Neary Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/07/12/getting-up-and-running-with-a-crm/#comment-292 <br/>Compiere depends on Oracle 10g and Java 1.5.0 - so, um, thanks, but no thanks. Sugar is also a weak free software supporter at best, so they're likely out of consideration. So that leaves us with CiviCRM, for the moment. Which I'm going to try seriously.<br/> Compiere depends on Oracle 10g and Java 1.5.0 – so, um, thanks, but no thanks. Sugar is also a weak free software supporter at best, so they’re likely out of consideration. So that leaves us with CiviCRM, for the moment. Which I’m going to try seriously.

]]> By: David Geilhufe http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/07/12/getting-up-and-running-with-a-crm/comment-page-1/#comment-293 David Geilhufe Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/07/12/getting-up-and-running-with-a-crm/#comment-293 <br/>Some of the answers to Dave's questions about CiviCRM:<p/>> Adding a new CRM administrator or user<br/>CiviCRM works within Drupal or Joomla. Within Drupal you would just create the appropriate user role and give it the appropriate permission. Creating a new CiviCRM Admin is as simple as granting a user that role. <p/><br/>> Importing an address-book, and filtering GNOME contacts from non-GNOME contacts<p/>CiviCRM has strong, wizard-based import functionality from csv. So you would create a csv from your source and then import that csv.<p/>The best thing would be to take out all the non-Gnome contacts from the csv. Alternatively, you can import them into an "Import" groups and people can decide whether they are Gnome contacts at a latter date.<p/><a href="http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/import?reset=1">http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/import?reset=1</a><p/>> Adding a new contact<p/>You can create individuals, organizations or households.<br/><a href="http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/contact/addI?c_type=Individual&reset=1">http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/contact/addI?c_type=Individual&reset=1</a><br/><a href="http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/contact/addO?c_type=Organization&reset=1">http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/contact/addO?c_type=Organization&reset=1</a><p/>> Associating a new event (IM conversation or mail) with a contact<br/> <br/><a href="http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/contact/view/activity?activity_id=2&action=add&reset=1&cid=36&log=1">http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/contact/view/activity?activity_id=2&action=add&reset=1&cid=36&log=1</a><br/>(sample of logging a call)<br/>You can also create custom activities (IM) and log those.<p/>> Receiving a notification when a contact you're related to has some new content added (being able to watch people or groups of people)<p/>This would be a good community contribution. We just implemented basic logging for record create/modification, so the basics are there and you could build the functionality from CiviCRM APIs.<p/>> Associate people with events (centralise information about user-group participation in events)<p/>This is accomplished easiest through Drupal.<p/>> Receive event-based notifications ("I'll get back to you at the end of the month")<br/> <br/>Schedule your activities for the future.<br/>Actual notifications would be a community contribution.<p/>Here is a community contribution that builds a task list from pending activities:<br/><a href="http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/Task">http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/Task</a>+List+-+Listing+of+Scheduled+Activities<p/>> Integrate with desktop apps (mail, contacts, IM) via a web service API<p/>We have SOAP working for most of the APIs... you just would have to excercise them.<br/><a href="http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviCRM">http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviCRM</a>+Public+APIs<p/>Integration with desktop applications would be another great community contribution :)<p/>Find out more: www.civicrm.org Some of the answers to Dave’s questions about CiviCRM:

> Adding a new CRM administrator or user
CiviCRM works within Drupal or Joomla. Within Drupal you would just create the appropriate user role and give it the appropriate permission. Creating a new CiviCRM Admin is as simple as granting a user that role.

> Importing an address-book, and filtering GNOME contacts from non-GNOME contacts

CiviCRM has strong, wizard-based import functionality from csv. So you would create a csv from your source and then import that csv.

The best thing would be to take out all the non-Gnome contacts from the csv. Alternatively, you can import them into an “Import” groups and people can decide whether they are Gnome contacts at a latter date.

http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/import?reset=1

> Adding a new contact

You can create individuals, organizations or households.
http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/contact/addI?c_type=Individual&reset=1
http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/contact/addO?c_type=Organization&reset=1

> Associating a new event (IM conversation or mail) with a contact

http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/contact/view/activity?activity_id=2&action=add&reset=1&cid=36&log=1
(sample of logging a call)
You can also create custom activities (IM) and log those.

> Receiving a notification when a contact you’re related to has some new content added (being able to watch people or groups of people)

This would be a good community contribution. We just implemented basic logging for record create/modification, so the basics are there and you could build the functionality from CiviCRM APIs.

> Associate people with events (centralise information about user-group participation in events)

This is accomplished easiest through Drupal.

> Receive event-based notifications (“I’ll get back to you at the end of the month”)

Schedule your activities for the future.
Actual notifications would be a community contribution.

Here is a community contribution that builds a task list from pending activities:
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/Task+List+-+Listing+of+Scheduled+Activities

> Integrate with desktop apps (mail, contacts, IM) via a web service API

We have SOAP working for most of the APIs… you just would have to excercise them.
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviCRM+Public+APIs

Integration with desktop applications would be another great community contribution :)

Find out more: http://www.civicrm.org

]]> By: Javi Vázquez http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/07/12/getting-up-and-running-with-a-crm/comment-page-1/#comment-294 Javi Vázquez Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/07/12/getting-up-and-running-with-a-crm/#comment-294 Hi Dave!,<p/> as far as I could seen (after a 15 minutes demo visit), CiviCRM is very simple and easy to use. <p/> Maybe it's enough, but just in case, you should try Tutos also, a free software groupware/CRM solution: <a href="http://www.tutos.org/homepage/index.html">http://www.tutos.org/homepage/index.html</a><p/> Tutos is not a specific CRM solution, but a grouware/CRM/bugtracker. We have used it for the last 3 years, as CRM and groupware. <p/> A problem in Tutos is that it doesn't have a strong community supporting it. The last version was released more than one year ago.<p/> If you want to know something more about Tutos characteristics, please ask me, I am an advanced user :)<p/>javivázquez Hi Dave!,

as far as I could seen (after a 15 minutes demo visit), CiviCRM is very simple and easy to use.

Maybe it’s enough, but just in case, you should try Tutos also, a free software groupware/CRM solution: http://www.tutos.org/homepage/index.html

Tutos is not a specific CRM solution, but a grouware/CRM/bugtracker. We have used it for the last 3 years, as CRM and groupware.

A problem in Tutos is that it doesn’t have a strong community supporting it. The last version was released more than one year ago.

If you want to know something more about Tutos characteristics, please ask me, I am an advanced user :)

javivázquez

]]> By: Donald Lobo http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/07/12/getting-up-and-running-with-a-crm/comment-page-1/#comment-295 Donald Lobo Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2006/07/12/getting-up-and-running-with-a-crm/#comment-295 <br/>Dave:<p/>Your best bet for opinions/support/question with regard to CiviCRM is our mailing lists. You can sign up at:<p/><a href="http://lists.civicrm.org/lists/lists">http://lists.civicrm.org/lists/lists</a><p/>Our permissioning model matches drupal's permissioning model which is fairly simple (but quite powerful) right now. We hope to move to a more comprehensive ACL based solution in a following version<p/>Our wiki at <a href="http://wiki.civicrm.org/">http://wiki.civicrm.org/</a> has a fair amount of information and comments. the community is pretty strong and growing at a nice rate. Would be awesome for the gnome group to use civicrm :)<p/>lobo<p/><br/>lobo<br/> Dave:

Your best bet for opinions/support/question with regard to CiviCRM is our mailing lists. You can sign up at:

http://lists.civicrm.org/lists/lists

Our permissioning model matches drupal’s permissioning model which is fairly simple (but quite powerful) right now. We hope to move to a more comprehensive ACL based solution in a following version

Our wiki at http://wiki.civicrm.org/ has a fair amount of information and comments. the community is pretty strong and growing at a nice rate. Would be awesome for the gnome group to use civicrm :)

lobo

lobo

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