If you're a small business looking to take the next step in    your evolution, you may be looking at implementing a customer    relationship management (or CRM) solution. But with    enterprise-grade vendors like Oracle and Salesforce charging    such a high premium for their services, how can smaller    companies afford to get started with CRM software?  
    The answer lies in open source. As with many kinds of software,    there are multiple vendors who provide open source CRM    solutions that are completely free to use. They may have    restrictions on them, such as limited features and support, but    for small businesses looking to try out CRM, they can be an    excellent starting point.  
    Open source software alternatives have their pros and cons, and    CRM software is no exception. The principal benefit, of course,    is that it's free - this makes it an excellent choice for    businesses who may not be able to afford a fully-fledged    enterprise CRM package like Salesforce.  
    It eliminates some of the commitment risks of traditional    software, too. Unlike major vendor offerings, open source    providers typically don't require customers to sign lengthy    licensing agreements. This means that you're free to try it    out, without the fear of being saddled with a system that you    don't get on with for months or years.  
    Open source CRM software is also highly customisable. If your    organisation has very specific needs, open source software    allows you to tweak and refine your CRM platform until it meets    all of your criteria. This also lets you tweak it to keep up    with changing market demands.  
    There are pitfalls too, however, with lack of support being the    main offender. A common trade-off in the open source world, the    price companies pay for freely available software is that    support is either limited or expensive.  
    Compatibility can be an issue as well; since open source    software development often features multiple concurrent strands    and forks, it can be hard to ensure that your software is up to    date, and that it works with that of your partners and    customers.  
    Open source CMS software can suffer visually as well,    especially compared to larger rivals. This may seen like a    minor issue, but the layout and user interface of a CRM system    can prove pivotal; if your sales staff can't intuitively    navigate a CRM package, they won't get the most use out of it,    making your business less efficient as a result.  
    The question of which open source CRM is best is a difficult    one to answer, largely because the answer will vary from    company to company. A CRM package that fits one company    perfectly might be entirely wrong for your organisation.  
    Instead, you should focus on finding the best CRM software for    you. Examine your business needs, and work out what exactly it    is that you need a CRM to do. Here's some of the top    capabilities you should be looking at when choosing a CRM    package.  
    The first thing businesses should be looking for when choosing    an open source CRM is how well it scales. You might only have a    handful of people on your sales force right now, but you're    going to want a CRM package that can grow with your business,    which means looking at a package without hefty upgrade fees.  
    You should also take migration into account. It's well worth    putting in a bit of extra legwork early on to make sure that if    you do decide to move to one of the larger, business-class CRM    solutions, you'll be able to do so with a minimum of hassle.  
    Most CRMs will perform equally well when it comes to basic    functions, but where the real value lies for many businesses is    in their integrations with other business tools. Modern CRMs    will work seamlessly with software like MailChimp, Xero and    Google's G Suite apps.  
    Linking all your tools together can have an immeasurable impact    on speeding up your organisation's workflows. Do a full audit    of what software is in use within your business, and then look    for a CRM package that will directly integrate with as many of    them as possible.  
    One of the benefits of using a CRM solution is that it allows    businesses to make informed decisions based on concrete data.    However, this only works if the CRM package in question allows    the business to surface relevant insights.  
    Organisations should be on the lookout for software that    contains strong reporting capabilities, good archiving and any    other features that will make use of the large amount of data    it harvests.  
    Support is the biggest real stumbling block for many open    source CRMs. Support will frequently only be available to    customers on a paid subscription plan, or will be provided by    the community rather than an enterprise grade support team.  
    This can turn out to be an unexpected problem for unwary    businesses. If there's no professional support structure to    help when its CRM goes down, the unfortunate enterprise could    be faced with days of downtime, if not longer.  
    While it's impossible to definitively state which CRM package    is best (for the reasons stated above), we can narrow down some    great options for specific tasks and applications, with the    caveat that many others are available, so consider these simply    as a starting point.  
    Odoo CRM offers great reporting options for businesses that are    looking to derive the maximum amount of insight from their    sales and workflow data. Forecasting is excellent, and reports    are simple to generate.  
    Thanks to a simple, easy-to-use interface, Anteil CRM is an    excellent choice for businesses that want to get started with    their first CRM package. Navigation through the browser-based    frontend is intuitive, and its lightweight nature means it    shouldn't be too hard to set up.  
    Based on the popular SugarCRM platform, SuiteCRM is widely    hailed as one of the most fully-featured and polished open    source CRM packages around. It boasts a wide range of    capabilities, modules and integrations, and is an excellent    choice for experienced users.  
    vTiger is an incredibly flexible CRM offering, thanks to the    ability to create modules from scratch with matching workflows.    While it requires a fair degree of technical knowledge to    perform some of the more advanced customisations, power users    will find that they can shape it to suit all of their needs.  
    What sets Zurmo apart from rivals is that it's 'gamified',    allowing users to earn scores, achievements and badges for    completing certain tasks. The idea is to not only make the    software fun, but also to help users become more proficient in    its use by incentivising them to increase their skillset.  
Read more from the original source:
The best open source CRM software - IT PRO