1.

• • Open Source CRM

• Michelle Murrain, Nonprofit Open Source Initiative

• March 27, 2008

2. What Ill cover today

What is a CRM?

Kinds of CRM

Why Open Source CRM?

Examples of Open Source CRMs

How to choose a CRM

3. So what is a CRM, anyway?

CRM stands for Constituent Relationship Management

• aka Community Relationship Management

• aka Contact Relationship Management

• aka Customer Relationship Management (its for-profit progenitor)

There are many kinds, and they have different feature sets

4. Whats in a CRM?

Basic Data

• Basic contact info

• Track activities (calls, events)

• Track donations

• Tracking Volunteers

Actions

• Email blasts

• Automated donations

• Event management and registration

5. Kinds of CRM

Desktop & Client/Server CRM

• Download and install on network and/or desktops

Web Server-based CRM

• Download and install on your intranet web server, or on your public-facing web server

Software as a Service

• No download or installation all hosted on companies site

6. Categories of CRM by license

Proprietary

Open Source In Spirit (built on proprietary platforms)

Open Source CRM built on proprietary OS/Database

Open Source CRMs built to run entirely on Open Source platforms

Software as a Service (not obtaining software, obtaining services)

7. Examples of CRM: Proprietary

Blackbaud Raisers edge

Donor Perfect

Fundware

Sage

...

...

8. Examples: SaaS

• Democracy In Action

• Convio

• Kintera

• Salesforce

• eTapestry

• Both Salesforce and eTapestry are free (as in beer) for some users:

• • Salesforce 10 free licenses

• • ETapestry free for 500 or fewer contacts

9. Examples: Open Source In Spirit

METRIX (built with MS Access)

EBase (built with FileMaker Pro)

10. Examples: Open Source

Depends on proprietary OS and/or Database

• mpower open (built on .NET and depends on MS SQL server)

• Organizers database (Windows and Visual Basic)

• Compiere (requires proprietary databases)

11. Examples: Open Source

Can be run completely using open source OS/tools

• Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP stack):

• • CiviCRM

• • SugarCRM

• • BaseBuilder

• Any OS, Apache Tomcat, Java:

• • OpenCRX

• • vTiger

12. Why Open Source CRM?

Free as in beer - organizations can get good CRM without spending a lot of money

Free as in speech - you can see, and modify the code behind the CRM

Open APIs open source CRMs have open APIs (APIs that are without cost, and documented)

Community support

Help to enhance open source CRM by contributing to CRM projects/products

13. Why Open Source CRM?

People seem to be satisfied with their choice of open source CRM:

• In the NTEN CRM satisfaction CiviCRM was first in satisfaction, SugarCRM and Organizers Database were 3 rdand 4 th(out of 22 tools.)

• These tools were all ahead of Blackbaud, Convio, Kintera, and other proprietary CRMs.

14. Why not open source CRM?

You need features not present in any current open source CRM

Your staff are familiar with a particular CRM

You want Software as a Service (SaaS)

15. Open Source CRM

Allcurrent open source offerings are:

• Stable and secure

• Support (both paid and community) readily available

Some are Enterprise Class

16. Web Based CRMs: CiviCRM

LAMP Stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP)

Web-based

Integrates with Drupal or Joomla (Drupal is best)

Has a new stand alone version

Version 2.0 is newly released

http://www.civicrm.org

Webinar 4/29

17. Web Based CRMs: SugarCRM

Written primarily for Sales in for-profit organizations

LAMP stack, fully open source

GPL v3

http://www.sugarcrm.com

18. 19. 20. 21. SugarCRM

Strengths:

• Lots of features

• Popular

• Active Community

• Can be used by large organizations

• Easy to install

• Has a company behind it so paid support is easily available

Weaknesses

• Designed for sales/business

22. Client/Server CRM: mpower open

Very mature product, very newly open source

Comparible to Raisers Edge

Windows client

Depends on MS SQL Server

Written in C#/.NET

No community yet

http://www.mpoweropen.com

23. mpower open

Strengths

• Designed for nonprofits

• Used by medium and large organizations

• Comparible to Raisers edge

• Mature product

• Completely open APIs

• Company behind it paid support is readily availabe

• Lots of future potential

24. mpower open

Weaknesses

• Newly open sourced no community around it

• Not easy to install

• Currently depends on proprietary platform and database

25. Desktop CRM: eBase Pro

Has been around for a long while

Is not truly open source written with FileMaker Pro

Can be customized if you own FileMaker Pro

Good for small-medium sized orgs

Future is uncertain

http://www.ebase.org

26. 27. 28. 29. Dekstop CRM: Organizers Database

Windows only

Written in Visual Basic

GPL

Customizable

Active Community

Still under active development

http://www.organizersdb.org

30. 31. 32. 33. How to choose a CMS

Whats your budget?

• Cost is not just the cost of software, it includes implementation, support, and data migration

• Remember to include staff time in your calculations

Can you identify sources of support?

• Paid support from vendor/company

• Consultant support

• Community support (takes staff time)

34. How to choose a CMS, continuted

Features what do you need?

• Basic contact management

• Donation tracking

• Tracking of activities and events

• Integrated online donations

• Email advocacy or newsletters

• Other features

Compare feature sets of different CRMs

35. How to choose a CMS, continued

Open APIs, and ease of data import and export

How important is open source?

Platform issues (web, desktop)

Database issues (some open source CRMs require proprietary databases)

36. Resources

Software choice worksheet:http://nosi.net/projects/primer

NTEN CRM satisfaction survey:http://www.nten.org/research/crm

Great Idealware article on CRM: http://www.idealware.org/articles/crm_software.php