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

Setting project goals and specifications


In the initial briefing note presented at the first meeting of the CRM implementation team, you should include suggested project goals, presented in terms of current business processes and talk about the manner in which they should be improved. If required, you should also suggest timelines and phases for the implementation process.

After some initial discussion, and depending on the scale of your business and the CRM implementation, one or more team members should be given the task of documenting the suggested project goals in detail. These can be presented and agreed upon at later meetings.

It will help to first simply agree upon the manner in which each business process can be improved, and not focus on any specific CRM technology.

This approach enables the team to first address the business requirements and then assign one or more members to identify a suggested shortlist of candidates for the core CRM technology to be used for the project.

Once...