Book Image

Implementing SugarCRM 5.x

Book Image

Implementing SugarCRM 5.x

Overview of this book

SugarCRM is a popular customer relationship management system. It is an ideal way for small-medium business to try out a CRM system without committing large sums of money. Although SugarCRM is carefully designed for ease of use, attaining measurable business gains requires careful planning and research. This book will give you all the information you need to start using this powerful CRM system. It is the definitive guide to implementing SugarCRM. Whether you are wondering exactly what benefits CRM can bring or you have already learned about CRM systems but have yet to implement one or you're working with SugarCRM already, this book will show you how to get maximum benefit from this exciting product. It demonstrates how to install SugarCRM and also how to get the most out of it by customizing it and integrating CRM into your organization as per your needs. Focused on the needs of the enterprise, this book provides a solution-driven approach for both business and IT specialists to get the most from this powerful and popular Open Source application. It begins with a general discussion about CRM. You will then learn the benefits of such systems, and then explore SugarCRM and its unique value. You will then go through the guidelines for installing and making deployment selections that are set out alongside information for identifying, planning, and applying customizations. Training guidelines and ongoing administrative tasks will be discussed as you progress further into the book. A brief overview of SugarCRM 6.0 is provided at the end of the book.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Implementing SugarCRM 5.x
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
Preface

Business models and their specific requirements


In the previous section, we looked at the different components of the basic CRM applications and identified a number of reasons why those applications might need to be customized for your business. In this section, we look at your business itself and examine it for reasons why your CRM might need to be tuned to suit it perfectly.

Businesses vary widely in their fundamental nature. Who do they sell to and how? What do they sell—a product or a service—and how expensive is it? Where is the business itself located and does it have multiple locations? Let us look at some of these distinguishing characteristics of a business, and see how they affect the CRM needs of a business.

B2B or B2C?

One of the first differentiators in CRM needs pertains to your customers. Are you a B2B (Business-to-Business) or B2C (Business-to-Consumer) business model? Meaning, do you sell to other businesses or individuals?

In a firm with a B2B business model, the typical...