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.

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Implementing SugarCRM 5.x
Sep, 2010 | 354 pages
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Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Implementing SugarCRM 5.x
Implementing SugarCRM 5.x
Credits
Credits
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
About the Reviewer
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Doing Business—Better
Doing Business—Better
Small and medium-size businesses: The good, the bad, and the ugly
What is Customer Relationship Management?
What are my CRM options?
What is SugarCRM?
How will this book help me tailor SugarCRM to my business?
Our case study: RayDoc Carpets, Doors, and Windows
Summary
2
One Size Does Not Fit All—CRM Your Way
One Size Does Not Fit All—CRM Your Way
Identifying the CRM needs of your business
Which business activities will be a part of your CRM?
Business models and their specific requirements
How do I make shrink-wrapped software suit my business?
Customer-centric business management
Requirement analysis
Summary
3
CRM Deployment Options
CRM Deployment Options
Deployment alternatives
Choosing a server operating system
Web-based application platforms
Backup and security considerations
Performing the installation
Summary
4
SugarCRM Basics
SugarCRM Basics
CRM processes and terminology
SugarCRM navigation: Accounts and contacts
The sales pipeline: Leads and opportunities
Sales activities
Advanced user-interface features
Summary
5
Extending The Business Role of Your SugarCRM System
Extending The Business Role of Your SugarCRM System
Resetting the database
Marketing campaigns
Campaign metrics
Summary
6
The SugarCRM Ecosystem
The SugarCRM Ecosystem
SugarCRM Community Edition
SugarCRM Professional/Enterprise Editions
Participating in the SugarCRM online community
Summary
7
Managing Your CRM Implementation
Managing Your CRM Implementation
Key steps to a successful CRM implementation
Some common pitfalls
It takes a team to win
Setting project goals and specifications
Selecting a CRM development partner
System development
The CRM training process
CRM training materials
Going live: Stepwise introduction
Continuous feedback and enhancement
Summary
8
Linking Your Customers to Your SugarCRM
Linking Your Customers to Your SugarCRM
Capturing leads from your website
Customer self-service portals
Summary
Installing SugarCRM on Linux
Installing SugarCRM on Linux
Basic CentOS Linux installation
Configure the CentOS Linux installation
Configuring PHP
Installing SugarCRM Community Edition
Installing SugarCRM on Windows Server
Installing SugarCRM on Windows Server
A word about our installation
Selecting a version of Windows
Installing SugarCRM using MySQL and Apache
Permissions
Data Import and Export
Data Import and Export
Importing accounts and contacts
Exporting information
The System Administrator Role
The System Administrator Role
System administration duties
Who should be the system administrator?
Should more than one user be given system admin capability?
Administration duties at system installation time
Recurring administration duties
Customizing SugarCRM
Customizing SugarCRM
Making changes to SugarCRM modules
A Word About SugarCRM 6.0
A Word About SugarCRM 6.0
What does SugarCRM 6.0 include?
Should I use SugarCRM 6.0?

Basic CentOS Linux installation

To install CentOS Linux Server carry out the following steps:

  • Insert the CentOS installation CD, disc 1 (or DVD if you downloaded the DVD image) into the target system and reboot. You should be able to see a screen similar to the following:

  • Hit the Enter key to start the installation process.

  • Choose Skip when prompted to test the CD images. You should see the following screen:

  • Proceed through the installation wizard choosing your desired language, keyboard layout, and other parameters. Continue the installation process until you get to the following screen:

  • When prompted, define a strong password for your root user and make sure to make a note of it in a safe place.

  • Next, you will need to make some adjustments to the default selections on the software selection screen as shown in the following image:

  • Verify that Server and Customize Now are selected before proceeding. This will ensure that you install all the necessary components.

  • On the screen that follows, select Servers and MySQL Database, as illustrated in the following image:

  • Proceed with the remainder of the wizard and initiate the installation process as shown in the next image:

Once the installation process has been completed, we need to adjust some settings to ensure that our PHP environment is properly configured and at the right version level.

If you recall from earlier in this section, Version 5.4 of CentOS includes Version 5.1.6 of PHP, which should not be used with versions of SugarCRM newer than 5.2. There is no need to worry, however, as step-by-step instructions for installing an updated version of PHP are available at the following URL:

http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/PHP_5.1_To_5.2

You may have noticed that the images were taken from an installation being performed on a Sun VirtualBox virtual machine. A virtual machine is precisely that, a digital representation of a physical server. VirtualBox is one of various software packages available today that provides this type of increasingly popular functionality.

The popularity of virtualization is primarily due to its ability to reduce costs. As a single physical server can be used to host multiple virtual machines, each performing different functions, hardware and other ancillary costs (such as electricity) are reduced. The danger, however, is that a major failure on the physical server has the potential to impact all the virtual machines it is hosting—this poses a bit of a risk.

If you are considering using virtualization technology for your SugarCRM deployment, either for the web or database server component, rest assured that it is a perfectly acceptable (and common) approach to deploying it, especially when using Linux.

Let us now proceed to configure our newly installed CentOS system to prepare it to host a SugarCRM installation.

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