Now that we have covered some of the essentials of what a CRM offers, itemized the value to a smaller business of a web-based CRM such as SugarCRM, and studied the theoretical aspects of how CRMs need customizing to properly fit each business that uses them, it is time we made use of the SugarCRM server we deployed in the last chapter.
In this chapter, we will take a guided tour of SugarCRM. Our task-oriented, systematic treatment will also relate the specifics of the SugarCRM system and its user interface with the general principles of CRM systems.
This chapter will cover the basic CRM functions and show how they are interpreted and performed within SugarCRM. These basic CRM concepts include:
Common CRM processes and terminology
Creating accounts and contacts, and relating multiple contacts to a single account
Following links between related data to answer questions as quickly as your mind can raise them
Creating and tracking the Sales Pipeline from leads to opportunities...