Book Image

Implementing SugarCRM

By : Michael Whitehead
Book Image

Implementing SugarCRM

By: Michael Whitehead

Overview of this book

<p>SugarCRM is a popular customer relationship management system. It is available in both free open source and commercial versions, making it 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 distils hard won SugarCRM experienced into an easy to follow guide to implementing the full power of SugarCRM. SugarCRM is an extensive PHP/MySQL based application but with its rich administration interfaces no programming is required to get the most of it.</p> <p>This book will give you all the information you need to start using this powerful, free CRM system. Written by veteran SugarCRM expert and experienced documentation author, Michael J. Whitehead, this book 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 of this exciting product.</p>
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Implementing SugarCRM
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
Preface
Index

Chapter 2. One Size Does Not Fit All—CRM Your Way

In the first chapter you learned about the history of how CRM software developed, how its affordability and accessibility for smaller businesses has been improving in recent years, and how important it is that a CRM is easily customized to suit your business.

You were also introduced to RayDoc Carpets, Doors, and Windows, and met Doc its proprietor. In this chapter, we will begin the process of analyzing the CRM needs of your specific business, and use our continuing RayDoc case study as an example of how to match CRM capabilities to the needs of a business.

Throughout this chapter, and indeed throughout this book to the extent possible, we shall focus primarily on the business objectives and benefits sought from the application of a CRM, not simply on the mechanics of installing and using the SugarCRM system specifically.

To that end, there are several extensive sections of this book devoted to the business analysis process you will need...