SugarCRM is an Open Source CRM tool. Open source means it is FREE. Below is an article I found on the internet that tells about SugarCRM. I have played around with this myself, but seem to have difficulties due to the technical matter. If anyone here is “tech savvy”, maybe we could get a “sample” up and running and “tweak” it to match the Automotive Internet Sales Business. Then we would not have to pay upwards of $2,000 per month for a CRM tool. What do you think?
SugarCRM comes of age
written by: Steve Hamm - June 01, 2006
A year and a half ago, when I first met SugarCRM CEO John Roberts, he was a fresh-faced young guy full of excitement about how open source software was going to transform the corporate applications markets. His company was only six months old at the time. Roberts dropped by earlier this week, and, while his forecast hasn’t come true yet, his company certainly has come of age. Sugar, arguably the first open source application designed for corporations, now has more than 600 paying customers with 10,000 users. About 90,000 people are using the free version. SugarCRM has always operated in the shadow of Salesforce.com, but, over time, it could cause real trouble for the better-known company.
Salesforce.com is the leader in on-demand customer-relationship management software. It now has 22,700 customers and 444,000 subscribers. But last quarter’s subscription additions of 45,000 fell off from 48,000 the previous quarter, and the company’s high marketing and R&D costs pushed it into the loss category. “We are having an impact on Salesforce.com. Their growth is slowing. Why? It’s because we’re gaining ground among the same potential customers,” says Roberts. (Read More)
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Implementing SugarCRM
