Re: OGo, CRM and other field specific software (LONG)

Michael Brown wrote:

>I didn't think that the discussion was trying to imply
>that CRM had to be in from the beginning.  Let's just
>leverage and market what OGo has now, and come up with
>a roadmap of what it will have in the future.  If
>folks see where OGo is planning on going, maybe we'll
>get more resources/devs/moula to make it happen.
>
>Hope that Helps!
>
>  
>

Greets;

Sure does.

The problem I am having with this discussion is not that I disagree with 
any of it, rather the perspective of the start point. The discussion is 
about product development and enhancements which is fine however the 
requirements are being addressed strictly from a technical perspective. 
What can ogo do to meet an existing functionality criteria set with 
sugarCRM as the target with the intend to grow uptake and community 
members. Problem with that perspective is that application deployment in 
the space we are all targeting (SOHO, SMB, SME) is rarely based on 
functional assessments rather on user perceived needs. Secondly sugarCRM 
has already been superceeded by vtiger which is more functional, 
complete and derived from sugarCRM regardless of it place of 
development. When it comes to application development, community growth 
and actual product deployment it is generally _not_ a technical decision 
in the referenced markets hence the popularity of windows based 
applications and systems. SugarCRM succeeded because it fills a customer 
perceived niche, is very easy to use, is extremely well marketed yet is 
technically unsophisticated. For what it does, it works out of the box, 
and can be used immediately without extensive support. Remember, the 
target audience is sales personal, not admins, in smaller organizations 
(typically less then 50) who are most cost concious at this point thanks 
to MS. An up sell or customization offering is available to "grow the 
client". That is the defined revenue path for these guys.

In its targeted market these are key elements to why its so popular. It 
generates revenue on two fronts and fills a need.  Even if OGo had a 
very simple CRM module added to it derived either from sope or the 
template system this by itself _may_  not be sufficient to gain market 
share, a user audience or community members. If this was the definitive 
factor then OGo, which is the most sophisticated and extensible 
groupware application currently available,  would be the market leader. 
However neither opensource projects nor commercial products survive on 
technical merit alone. Learned this lesson a long time ago (review 
history of netwinder vs cobalt cube if interested, 2M vs 15M in revenues 
and guess who was technically superior) In many cases its less then 40 
percent. In other cases its more then 90. It all depends on the audience 
and target market. ie: windows XP home = home users, Apache=sys admins. 
Both are success stories in their designated markets and both offer 
differing degrees of technical competency are required by there 
respective audiences. Consulting engagements and revenue are only 
derived from willing clients/customers not the number of 
clients/customers in the pool, Getting clients to play is at times a 
prolonged exercise in education on which there is little return versus 
time invested. On the other hand if customers want your product/service 
then the formula is reversed. Getting customers to "want" you product 
makes or breaks a product or project. It is easier for them to want your 
product if you offer a solution to their perceived need which may or may 
not be technically advanced. Educating clients about their needs and 
what you have to offer is the long way round. The uptake cycle of 
'Linux' is the best example of that to date if we look at it since '92.

SugarCRM has found a niche that interests customers. That is the 
starting point for a requirements definition set IMHO. Feed the user 
base (ie: customer base) what they want and how they want it. Then 
educate them on site through a paid engagement. SugarCRM found this 
niche as the requirement was very simple. Give me a CRM package that 
does not cost an arm a leg, (we are a small business and cant afford the 
tier 1 players cost....but we really need this.....why I dont really 
know but everyone uses it) is functional with minimal support (as we 
have a limited support team) and something that does not lock in the 
data so I can hire someone to rework the data as needed. Goldmine, Act 
and others are killing me in license fees and additional costs to get 
the data out that I really need.  Also something that has a decent 
reporting feature/engine that is either standalone or I can feed into 
Crystal Reports. Sounds unreasonable? I hear it every day.  A good 
summary is here; 
http://www.acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=239  
(para 4 is most informative)

While I may be starting to sound negative on this subject, I am not. 
Rather the opposite. Im only commenting on the starting point which to 
me personally and IMHO is a high percentage indicator of success. Thats 
all...;)

If we can role this out, feature complete in say 30-60 days labor thats 
just fine. Then it becomes an exercise in competing for mind share with 
sugarCRM customers existing and potential no? How do we let them know of 
what we have? and what are the competitive advantages of OGo?  Why OGo 
and not another gpl CRM variant? Many more questions of that nature but 
this is getting long again..:)

/ch


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