Open Source CRM: What is it?

The bottom line is that open source is about money. Open source CRM has attracted businesses who want a product they think is better or more suitable than a CRM proprietary equivalent that is also much more expensive From a business perspective, it is just a different licensing model. The vendors involved in open source CRM systems today are trying to build market share by creating an environment to entice add-on and service providers. One can already see the commercial giants moving into the vacuum.

Small and Medium Size Business (SMB)

The low upfront cost of open-source CRM alternatives has made it irresistible to small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) that also lack the technical savvy and infrastructure to get it up and running. Application Service Providers (ASPs) fill the technical gap by acting as a hosted vendor to allow clients to use their software through a web browser. Since SMBs do not need the capacity of a full server, ASPs, via server sharing, can drive down costs, making them competitive with their commercial counterparts. Integrating Open Source CRM into their operations, over commercial CRM, SMBs can reduce costs by 90% in some cases.

One open source vendor developed an Enterprise Resource Planning and CRM package for the SMB market. It has multi-currency, multi-language features; supports different styles of accounting and taxation; has HTML and Windows clients; and provides integrated data analysis. The vendor also offers some fee-based support options.

However, the same Harvard Cyberposium that saw good things about open source CRM software also heard from dissenting voices who said that open source is not competitive with the commercial giants in data warehousing, data mining, online analytical processing, XML storage, clustering, plug-ins for a wide variety of specialty data types, distributed transactions, and external data gateways.

Examples

GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a serviceable application, but it cannot match Adobe Systems Inc.'s Photoshop.

Mozilla's open source browser, which gets high marks for support, has major compatibility issues in a Web environment optimized for Internet Explorer.

Evolution and Slypheed, open source e-mail software, deliver a solid user experience when it comes to messaging, but have no support for Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino mail protocols that fuel the world of corporate messaging solutions.

The Future

This brings us to the biggest issue facing open source CRM: More than 90 percent of businesses have already standardized on Microsoft's Office and Internet Explorer. In an eWeek Labs test, OpenOffice was, for the most part, able to interoperate with Office files. But how many enterprises will jettison Microsoft Office to go with common-subset file formats?

eWeek Labs editorialized that research into open source should be broadened. But cautioned that while Web server and server operating system space are pretty safe bets, emerging ERP and CRM options should be approached warily.

For SMBs in particular, eWeek Labs advised that they should weigh the cost, functionality and comfort level of traditional applications against open-source options.

Open Source CRM: What is it?

Small and Medium Size Business (SMB)

Examples

The Future

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