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

Summary


In this chapter, we covered the practical considerations of installing and running SugarCRM in your business. The key points included are as follows:

  • Comparing the advantages of an On-Demand service versus a Collocated, On-Premise, or Shared Server. We also compared the up front costs of maintaining your own server versus paying monthly fees for an On-Demand service. We also explained the minimal support for customizations available with an On‑Demand service or Shared Server.

  • If you choose to deploy SugarCRM on your own server, you will need to select the operating system and hardware configuration for your server, and also make decisions regarding server security and Internet connection bandwidth.

  • Using Windows or Linux as the server operating system on your SugarCRM server and learned about the LAMP stack. We also examined some popular variations of the LAMP stack including WAMP and WIMP.

  • For security, you should consider a UPS (battery backup), a locked server closet, a firewall,...