OGo, CRM and other field specific software (LONG)

Hi Folks!

I've been following the CRM discussion with interest, so I thought I'd 
throw my $0.02 worth in, speaking as a small business owner.  I looked 
at SugarCRM prior to, and during my deployment of OGo.  As a service 
business, CRM is important to me in order to manage information, leads & 
information requests, billing, support requests, etc. with minimal 
duplication.  I ruled out SugarCRM for several reasons:

1. It didn't offer much more functionality than OGo, and in many areas, 
it offered considerably less.
2. It required setting up ANOTHER database server and PHP on my box.
3. It didn't have Palm Sync capability.
4. It would've meant running another application on my box, that 
wouldn't share info with the other apps I'm using, without lots of work. 
I really don't want another "standalone" application on my server, that 
could result in "islands" of data which can get out of sync with one 
another.

For my business, I decided to settle on OGo as my MAIN source for 
Contact information and document management.  I then added Request 
Tracker 3.2 for some CRM functions like info requests, sales leads, 
support, etc.  I'm using SQL-Ledger for accounting.  In the near future, 
I'm going to try to get all them tied together using LDAP and the 
back-sql export of OGo data.  It'll probably take a lot of scripting as 
well, which isn't ideal, but it can work out well for functionality.

As for porting OGo into a CRM application, I really don't think that's 
necessary.  OGo already has that functionality, and there are many enh 
requests (some listed below) to get what isn't there.  As for holding up 
SugarCRM as the unit of measure; I think it's popular in the OSS space 
because it was basically the first one there, and it's one of the most 
advanced of what's currently available.  I don't, however, believe it 
should be the tool by which we measure against.  Act!, GoldMine, 
Maximizer, etc have been in that space longer and are more well known.  
It's those applications we should be measuring OGo against, doing a Gap 
Analysis, and then seeing how we can leverage OGo's existing 
technologies to deliver those features.  We also need to make sure that 
we market OGo as having CRM functionality.  Each OGo deployment will 
have their own specific needs, so making OGo customizable by the 
sysadmin/consultants to fit the client's needs is the way I think we 
should go.  One size doesn't fit all.

Also, I think for marketing purposes we should be targeting 
small-to-medium size businesses.  These are the ones that are typically 
running either workstations with file-sharing, or MS Windows Small 
Business Server.  With the retirement of NT4, this does give OGo the 
possibility to break into the small-to-medium market by offering a 
feature rich and stable platform on which to base their business.  OGo 
can offer a lot in the way of CRM, project management, doc management, 
collaboration, etc. with it's existing technologies.  It just needs a 
few enhancements to make it more feasible.

Other fields also have specific software (usually Windows based) that 
OGo can feature-compete with, should it be marketed properly, and a few 
new features added.  In researching something for a client, I came 
across Amicus Attorney ( http://www.amicusattorney.com/ ) whose key 
feature was ** notes **.  The ability to link a note to a client, or a 
"file", or send it to someone.  This is mostly functionality that is 
already in OGo, with some enh requests to make it easier.

I've listed below a bunch of enh requests for CRM type functionality 
that I've found in bugzilla.  If people find them to be of interest, why 
not add your comments to the bugs?  There's probably more in bugzilla, 
but these are ones that I see being mentioned in the SugarCRM threads, 
and a few I think are important.


Notes/Project storage for Contacts
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=811

Timers for notes
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1140

Create a new note from the Dock
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1142

Threaded Notes/Discussion forum
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=849

Document Discussion capability
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=535

Document Approval workflow
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=576

Project Templates
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=121

Project Types (may relate to "discussion forum" and similar enh 
requests, maybe from templates)
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1141

Generic DB/document classes for projects
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=793

"Journal view" of projects
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=39

Act(Contact) journal view
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=370

Schedular "type group" views
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=926

Task or appointment from E-mail
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=750

Improved task time tracking
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=760

Hierarchies of dependent tasks
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1089

Gantt Charts
http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1090

Hope that helps!  Happy New Year to all!

/Mike
-- 
OpenGroupware.org Discussion [email protected]
http://mail.opengroupware.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss