Cut Costs with quality Open Source CRM Systems

The open source movement has challenged the monopoly of proprietary software systems in the world. Using the collective intelligence and skills of a community of developers who use the power of the Internet to work together, open source software has proved that free software can be of good quality. An open source operating system such as Linux has become a major rival of the proprietary Microsoft Windows. There are open source software alternatives available for every genre of applications from the free GIMP to rival Photoshop to no-cost content management systems for online publishing such as Wordpress. Open source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have also come up, providing competition to commercial and proprietary CRM systems such as SAP and Microsoft Dynamics.

Difference between Open Source and Proprietary CRM Systems in Development

Software development is the foundation on the basis of which the Information Technology (IT) industry functions. Developers skilled in a particular computer language such as C, C++ or Java, build software or as is commonly described, write code to build various software applications that are then marketed to businesses and individual users. IT companies, such as Microsoft or Oracle, employ thousands of software developers to write code and build cutting-edge proprietary products such as the Windows applications, Internet browsers, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications and CRM software. These software products are sold to businesses, who pay for the product, implementation and support services. The source code, which is used to build commercial proprietary software such as CRM systems, is copyrighted, and is not accessible to others apart from select company developers.

An open source CRM software is just the opposite. A community of developers usually does the development of open source software. The ideas and skills of hundreds of developers come together in the creation of a single application. The developers usually contribute their expertise for free. The Linux was built using this kind of a unique development model. An open source CRM system such as SugarCRM also followed the same development model.

Open source CRM systems software is typically built using collaborative platforms over the Internet such as Sourceforge.net In the development of the open source CRM, SugarCRM, developers from all over the world came together and wrote the code using their project page on Sourceforge. The programming language used is PHP. The source code and the latest edition of SugarCRM is available for download from their project site.

As open source CRM software is based on freely accessible and modifiable source code, it is a straightforward process to customise it to suit your requirements.

Most open source CRM systems are based on the Linux operating system, which itself is an open source, developed using the collaborative development model. Languages such as PHP and Python can be used for development as well as open database systems such as MySQL, with the use of an Apache HTTP server.

Open Source Licensing for CRM Software System - Free to Use and Modify

While commercial proprietary CRM systems are copyrighted and access to source code is denied, the source code for an open source CRM software system are accessible to all. Open source CRM systems can be offered under the GNU General Public License (GPL). As opposed to copyrighted software, a GNU GPL is a copyleft license, which means the software as a whole is free, and users are well within their rights in using, distributing and making changes to the source code and applications.

The GPL license also gives users the right to benefit commercially from the open source CRM software system. However, the GPL insists that the all users must be able to access the source code and have rights to modify it, even if a commercial product has been built out of the open source software.

Commercial Open Source CRM System

SugarCRM, a pioneer in development of open source CRM system, has released commercial versions of the CRM software. Calling it a "commercial open source" CRM application, the company offers the Community Edition of the CRM product for free download. The Sugar Community Edition of SugarCRM offers basic functionality. Users and businesses can try the community edition or can opt for the commercial editions for more extended functionality and technical support. Even in the commercial open source edition, users can modify the code to cater to their business needs. The interoperability and flexibility provided by open source CRM systems is their USP, unlike the numerous conditions and restrictions on use imposed by proprietary systems.

According to SugarCRM, their open source CRM product has been downloaded more than a million times.

Low Cost of Open Source CRM

For many small and medium enterprises, the huge costs involved in commercial, copyrighted CRM systems on the market are a massive deterrent in automating their customer related processes. The businesses have to pay for the software and hardware, for the licensing for multiple users and for technical support. Customisation and additional functionality requirements add to the expense.

An open source CRM system can work out be much cheaper. In fact, it can be even implemented absolutely free. As the source code is free, you may only need resources in installation and the administration of the software. Some open CRM vendors do offer professional editions for a fee, to provide additional functionality and support.

Some Examples of Open Source CRM Software

Apart from SugarCRM which is a leader among open source CRM systems, other players include SplendidCRM which focuses on Microsoft based technologies such as Windows, and .NET and VTiger, an India-based CRM provider using LAMP (Linux Apache, MySQL, Python) architecture.

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