Open Source CRM Michelle Murrain, Nonprofit Open Source Initiative March 27, 2008
What I ll cover today What is a CRM? Kinds of CRM Why Open Source CRM? Examples of Open Source CRMs How to choose a CRM
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 forprofit progenitor) There are many kinds, and they have different feature sets
What s 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
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 Work through a web browser Software as a Service No download or installation all hosted on companies site Work through a web browser
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)
Examples of CRM: Proprietary Blackbaud Raiser s edge Donor Perfect Fundware Sage......
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
Examples: Open Source In Spirit METRIX (built with MS Access) EBase (built with FileMaker Pro)
Examples: Open Source Depends on proprietary OS and/or Database mpower open (built on.net and depends on MS SQL server) Organizer s database (Windows and Visual Basic) Compiere (requires proprietary databases)
Examples: Open Source Can be run completely using open source OS/tools Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP stack): CiviCRM SugarCRM Any OS, Apache Tomcat, Java: OpenCRX vtiger
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
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 Organizer s Database were 3 rd and 4 th (out of 22 tools.) These tools were all ahead of Blackbaud, Convio, Kintera, and other proprietary CRMs.
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)
Open Source CRM All current open source offerings are: Stable and secure Support (both paid and community) readily available Some are Enterprise Class
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
Web Based CRMs: SugarCRM Written primarily for Sales in for-profit organizations LAMP stack, fully open source GPL v3 http://www.sugarcrm.com
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
Client/Server CRM: mpower open Very mature product, very newly open source Comparible to Raiser s Edge Windows client Depends on MS SQL Server Written in C#/.NET No community yet http://www.mpoweropen.com
mpower open Strengths Designed for nonprofits Used by medium and large organizations Comparible to Raiser s edge Mature product Completely open APIs Company behind it paid support is readily availabe Lots of future potential
mpower open Weaknesses Newly open sourced no community around it Not easy to install Currently depends on proprietary platform and database
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
Dekstop CRM: Organizer s Database Windows only Written in Visual Basic GPL Customizable Active Community Still under active development http://www.organizersdb.org
How to choose a CMS What s 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)
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
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)
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_softw are.php