CRM for Linux?

diwolf writes "I've looked high and low, but haven't found a real Customer Relationship Manager for Linux. I used to use ACT! for Windows (bad word, blah, blah, blah), and loved it. But, I can't find anything similar on Linux. Does this mean I have to dust off my progamming skills and write my own? Or, is there an ACT! clone that's GPL'ed and just waiting for my download?" A ZDNet article from over a year ago also makes this point stating that Linux "still falls short when it comes to supporting workloads required by applications like ERP (enterprise resource planning), business intelligence, CRM (customer relationship management) and supply chain planning". Now it's a year later, and SourceForge has racked up an impressive array of CRM related projects. For those with experience with some of these Linux CRM solutions, how well do they stack up to other well known offerings in this arena?

Comments

BaaN?

[Wizard of OS]

I'm not an expert in ERP and CRM, but I believe I recently saw a press release from the Dutch ERP vendor BaaN that they are going to support their 'iBaaN' platform on Linux. Maybe worth a look?

GoldMine Everywhere

[qurob]

In THEORY you can use this on Linux: You need a web server, and you can run GoldMine Everywhere. http://www.frontrange.com/goldmine/fo2000_gmes.asp You can then use PalmPilots, or a web browser to access your customer data ANYWHERE.

Re:GoldMine Everywhere

[hot-swappable]

you might run into a problem doing it this way. How would you configure, customize and admin the db.. You can't do this thru the web tools. True, you can view your data, but you'll still need to have one Windows machine to get the db set up. both Goldmine and ACT are the same in this regard.

Too much choice?

[d-Orb]

Disclaimer: I am not particularly savvy when it comes to CRM or stuff like that.

However, by looking at the sourceforge list, it looks as if there is an overlap of different projects trying to achieve exactly the same thing. Am I right in thinking this? I guess that a good package, which is easy to customise (maybe using python or scheme, and maybe using point-and-click approaches for some tasks) would be really useful.

Begging your pardon, you're a bit confused

[biglig2]

ACT isn't a CRM system. CRM means a big fancy database with lots of business logic behind of it, customised to you, with a big price tag.

ACT, however, is a Contact Management Application.

Basically it is a "PIM-on-steroids" for the seriously heavy user - the salesman who's contact list is his life blood and who needs the best possible tool to handle it, something that goes beyond a PIM.

Re:Begging your pardon, you're a bit confused

[hot-swappable]

sorry, but I have to disagree. CRM can be the heavily integrated kind- true- ACT cannot integrate with your JDE system for example. But, ACT does track sales and is capable of some great reports on its own, or you could use Crystal Reports to get data that would rival if not surpass anything you could do with JDE world writer. ACT can handle synchronizing data for a nationwide sales team and call center- tracking sales and customer contacts. Hardly a PIM on steroids. More like an affordable solution if you don't happen to be big business.

Re:Begging your pardon, you're a bit confused

[biglig2]

Well, certainly ACT is nifty. But you'll agree it is at the bottom end of the market.

I was really trying to point out the extraordinary disparity between what diwolf is saying "anyone got an ACT clone for Linux?" (which you can answer with the traditional cry of Google/Freshmeat is your friend) and how Cliff was interprting it "does Linux still fall short when it comes to supporting workloads required by applications like ERP , business intelligence, CRM , and supply chain planning" which is a more interesting point for a slashdot discussion, but not the question that was being asked.

These are two very different questions.

simple really

[underclocked]

I'd say it's time to dust off your programming skills and code your own. Picture this: Apache, MySQL, and your choice of web programming tools, and viola, your own customizimable linux CRM solution that will work on any system with a web browser.

I was able to get a working system working in under 2 weeks and made it pretty and ready for production use with one additional week (but that's because I love PHP).

Re:simple really

[Anonymous Coward]

the url is?

ERP on Linux...I use QAD's MFG/Pro

[reddog1]

There are ERP solutions for Linux without a doubt. Just don't expect a free one. I work with MFG/Pro from QAD QAD. Runs great on Linux!!!

SourceForge and CRM's

[diwolf]

I've downloaded and tried about a dozen or so titles from SourceForge that 'claim' to be CRM's. Some of them are close, but are lacking key features that I think all CRM's should have (that is, client records are related to appointments, to-do's and notes and comments).An awful lot claim to be CRM's, but are really PIM's in disguise (very much Outlook like).

With CRM's, I believe that the devils in the details. I need to be able to keep track of my customers and know what we spoke about 6 months ago, and plan for follow-ups - without having to retype their name and phone # each and every time I schedule a callback or an appointment. Most CRM's on Sourceforge missed the boat and became Groupware.

There isn't, and for a while there won't be.

[DavidpFitz]

CRM on Linux (or any Free OS) is a long way off. It's not a technical reason, it's just that CRM is a very expensive business (Think $30k for a Siebel licence (per seat) and then the big servers that sit behind it. I've seen Siebel implementations that use 6 E10K's to drive it. Really.

Problem is, big businesses are going to want to use Oracle on Solaris, and since they do, people like Siebel, SAP and Oracle (with their own CRM offerings) are always going to tune (and tie) their systems to Oracle on Sun (almost always.)

So, for the moment, the only way you're going to see enterprise level CRM software on Linux is through a browser front end.

It really sucks, since all that's needed is a fairly thin client to get Siebel working on Linux. Come to think of it, that part of it couldn't be that hard to port... but it still leaves you tied server-wise.

Re:There isn't, and for a while there won't be.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen Siebel implementations that use 6 E10K's to drive it. Really.

The scary thing is that from my understanding of Siebel it's really all about this master database schema that they dump everything into, and then they provide a set of prototyping tools for whipping out cool interfaces to get at that data. I'm in a place where we already have a large customer profile (customers being salesmen in our business, a little confusing) and the Siebel people told us "If you don't use our schema you're wasting half your money."

Later in the conversation when we tell them we have our own web framework and don't want to use their gui tools they tell us "if you don't use our gui tools you've wasted the other half of your money."

:)

Re:There isn't, and for a while there won't be.

[42.5]

Mostly true. Siebel does provide a good framework. Why reinvent the wheel just to stroke an ego?

Re:There isn't, and for a while there won't be.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, you are absolutely right. I worked for one of the largest help desk/crm providers, and I personally ported our product to Linux. I advised our product manager to take Linux off the "officially-supported" list because it was turning into a support nightmare. The product manager agreed with me because most of our customers that wanted to use our product with Linux were small and represented a very small proportion of our revenues. We offered our product on Linux and did our best to support it, but if it turned out to be some kernel related issue, we told them to move to Solaris.

Re:There isn't, and for a while there won't be.

[Anonymous Coward]

"If you don't use our schema you're wasting half your money."
"if you don't use our gui tools you've wasted the other half of your money."

That's true of any of these big ERP/CRM/etc systems - most of what you are paying for is "tell us how to do it". If you already know, there's no reason to buy them.

Why?

[duffbeer703]

CRM implementations are known for not working and costing alot of time & money.

Why would you want to implement such a thing?

Enough already

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on Cliff, you keep posting these asking for CRM apps. Obviously, Cliff wants a contact manager.

That's right Cliff you are looking for a contact manager, as in Act and Goldmine. These are NOT CRM. CRM apps are Seibel, Clarify, Baan and MAYBE SAP but, not really.

Not if your hard up for a Linux contact manager, take a bash at Evolution or something but, stop posting these stupid CRM questions. This is the third one this week.

SAP has CRM. SAP runs on Linux.

[42.5]

You can run all parts of SAP (R/3, CRM, BW, etc) on linux. Including the databases Oracle/SAPDB/DB2 your choice.
I'm not 100% but the cadillac of CRM, Siebel also runs on linux.

CRM?

[SuiteSisterMary]

A CRM is the thing that ties into your phone system, and brings up the customer info as soon as you pick up. A CRM is the thing that brings up 'similar problems' as you type in whatever your customer's problem is, as you do it. A CRM, out of the box, is something like 30 to 50 percent complete; the rest you need customized. You might be looking for a server-side address book, you might be looking for an incident tracker, you might even be looking for bugzilla. But if you're looking for a CRM, you're talking heavy duty shit.

Re:CRM?

[Anonymous Coward]

You seem to be confusing a CRM application with a Call-Center one, and no, they are not the same at all, even if they often do share information. However, the same information is usually shared with most of the ERP suite (ie, Company information is needed in Billing modules) without it making the two the same.

Re:CRM?

[SuiteSisterMary]

A good CRM ties into everything, otherwise what's the point? You want your sales force, call center, maintenance, everybody to be running the same data. That's the whole idea; CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP. Otherwise, you're just running a fancy address book.

Sigh...

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we start rejecting "Ask Slashdot" stories that ask a question that has more than 1,000 results when asked in Google? Maybe if the question was phrased differently, such as "What's the best CRM for linux...", though that would start a flame war like any other "What's the best..." question. Please, do at least some cursory research before writing into Ask Slashdot every tiny question you have about any possible subject.

Anyhow, this question yielded ~37,200 results on Google. I'm sure there's some useful info in there. Go read it.

Web based CRM

[warnerms]

Well I was wondering about CRM for linux myself.
I wrote a simple Web based contact manager program
using MySQL and Perl. sense-warner-200.oz.net/perl/contacts.pl
Now I have been thinking about writing something
CRMish. Just ordered the CRM handbook from bookpool. Have never seen a real CRM system. Not so sure what they do, hence the book order.
Can anyone in Seattle show me a real CRM System?

Lotus Domino

[spanielrage]

Check out solutions available on Lotus Domino. Domino is available for Linux and runs very well, and provides plenty of other services as well.

Compiere

[danpbrowning]

All you who say there is no high-class CRM for Linux, pay attention:

Compiere.

http://www.compiere.org

Mozilla License. Enterprise-class ERP/CRM (okay, the CRM is a little lacking, but the ERP is awesome).