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

Deployment alternatives


One of the advantages of using SugarCRM as your CRM solution is its flexibility in a number of areas. For now, the flexibility we are most concerned with is its ability to be installed in a variety of environments. SugarCRM is rather unique in its breadth of supported deployment options.

The four basic options from which you must choose are as follows:

  • On‑Demand: In this situation, you pay a fee for the right to use the SugarCRM application. Fees are usually based on a per month and per user model, but can vary greatly depending on the provider. The advantage of this deployment is the quick time to deployment and elimination of responsibilities, such as backing up the server and so forth. Some of the reasons why businesses choose not to use this model include the following:

    • The data resides on someone else's server

    • There is a limited access to the data beyond the application

    • There are limits on some of the customizations that can be applied to the system

      The latter point...