Very recently, myself and a few friends of mine were contemplating the start of a business venture. After a week or so, we realised the need for some software to help us out in the planning stages. Here were our requirements for the software system:

• It needed to be cheap.

We didn’t have any money as we hadn’t yet made any sales! So, we needed a solution that wouldn’t cost us a lot of money.

• It needed to be easy to use.

This requirement was important. Although we have very good technical skills, we wanted a system that didn’t get in the way. If probably needed to be complex to meet all of our needs, but even so, it couldn’t be cluttered.

• It needed to give a minimum of 3 users easy access from multiple sites.

We were three individuals without an office. We met in all sorts of places for our planning meetings, restaurants, cafes, etc. So we needed a central place for our system, but that was accessible from multiple sites. Online CRM over the Internet does a fairly good job of this. Wireless is also available from a lot of places around the Melbourne CBD, which helps us if we need access during a meeting. One of us has an ISP account at home with a static IP (which means it never changes) and since we were technical, we decided to build our own server from an old computer and install our online CRM system on there.

• It needed to be scalable.

We were planning to build our company by instantly hiring a sales team. This meant that the system needed to support additional users at minimal cost in licensing and hardware.

• It needed to be Open.

“Open” means a lot of things to a lot of people. Basically for us, it meant a system that we could easily integrate with other systems as we grew (billing, communications, etc). It also meant that we had open, supported and documented access to our data in any form. We also needed something that would allow us to customise if we wanted to. An easy way to meet all these requirements is to select a system that is Open Source and possibly GPL licensed.

One system that met all these requirements, was the Open Source version of SugarCRM. We gave version 3.0 a test run and it seemed to meet all the requirements.

• It was cheap.

You can’t get much cheaper than free, so the price was right.

• It was easy to use.

It had its shortcomings, but overall, it’s a fairly easy to use system. it even comes with many themes and options for users to customise their interface to ther liking.

• It was available from multiple sites.

As it could be installed on a web server open to the Internet, it was perfect for accessing no matter where we were.

• It was scalable.

We ran the first version on a Pentium 233MMX with Debian Linux 3.1. And it ran fine with no problems for 3 of us. I’m sure that it would have handled more with no problems.

• It was Open.

It was Open Source, not only itself, but also the database and other technologies used to develop the system. We had access to everything we wanted.

It was a great system overall, and really met the needs of our little baby company.

A very interesting story has just appeared at Information Week – CRM Vendor Entellium Adopts Open-Source Strategy. It reports that Entellium is planning to release sections of their code as Open Source.

On one hand this is great news and shows that one more company has realised the advantages of Open Source software. On the other hand, it seems that Entellium is not willing to go all the way. A few different companies such as Salesforce.com have or are exploring different levels of Open Source compatibility, but they seem to have the same attitude as companies like Microsoft with their “Shared Source” program.

The only standout product out of all these types of offerings is SugarCRM. If the core engine of the CRM software system is still closed source, then users will still suffer from vendor lock-in and all the problems that that brings. So, it seems that Entellium and Salesforce.com want the best of both worlds. It probably can be achieved, but are users and companies really getting the advantages of Open Source? My other question is, will their customers realise the power and flexibility of Open Source and want more once they’ve had a taste?