Contact Database...

[designguru]

I'm considering an install of SugarCRM to mainly give my organisation a  good way of keeping track of contacts, and I like the fact that there is the simple integration with Joomla currently (which allows Joomla users to auto-insert into the Sugar contact db).

However, the simplest way to do this would be the best, and installing another package  might be confounding the issue so perhaps you guys could check out my needs and let me know what you think:

- Basically, I have a bunch of contacts I am bringing  together for a festival I am organising ( http://www.dx.org/digifest - soon to be ported and developed in Joomla! ) and want to be able to denote simple records including their names, addresses, email addresses, websites etc.  The denotation would essentially be facilitated by allowing additional fields to be added.

I'd like the tightest integration to joomla as possible so that I could, for example, create email lists for these contacts and give them discussion forum permissions.

Hmmm,  perhaps I do need a robust solution afterall...

Thoughts/Ideas?
q.

[dmcole]

Have you seen Community Builder (http://www.mambojoe.com)? From your limited explanation of the features you desire I think it would fit, though it is something of overkill. Take a look if you haven't already.

Best of luck.


\dmc

[designguru]

Hmm, true, I need to play around with it a bit, though what I like about a CRM system integration is that all entries in my database don't need to be part of my community - just vice versa you see.

q.

[mcsmom]

Have you looked at CiviCRM? It does allow you to separate the two. The new release is a huge leap forward.

[designguru]

Okay, this might be a great time to pose the big question:

What really seperate CivicCRM and SugarCRM? 

q.

[lobo]

A couple of things seperate CiviCRM from SugarCRM

1. SugarCRM to a large extent is a sales force automation (SFA) application similar to SalesForce/Siebel

2. CiviCRM is more focused towards the needs of non-profits, politcal advocacy groups, grass roots organizing etc

3. With regard to the above, CiviCRM is going to have an extended feature set to support the above groups. Thus we will release modules like
  CiviMail (high performance mass mailer integration)
  CiviContribute (a transaction processing engine with a focus on donations, integreated with different payment processrors like PayPal)
  CiviMember
  CiviVoter
  CiviSMS

(for additional descriptions, u can check our wiki at:

http://objectledge.org/confluence/display/CRM/Home

4. CiviCRM has a much tighter integration with the CMS. Today, CiviCRM exists only with a CMS framework (Joomla!, Mambo or Drupal)

5. We expect the community to come up with a significant set of modules that integrate well and deeply with CiviCRM. We are starting to see some modules in the drupal community already, and expect the number to increase significantly over a period of time

lobo

[designguru]

Brilliant!

civicCRM is definately the right choice for me then; I like the fact that it can be integrated into Joomla and extended with its own modules as well - I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in the upcoming mass mailer module particularily, since out homegrown solutions (Mamml/Letterman/YanC) are a little wonky.

Okay, I'm excited... its off to your wiki for me...

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