Things will start to get better for me at work. Finally frustrated with
Maximizer CRM, I decided to go PHP and look for an open source CRM application.
Found SugarCRM. Sure, Sugar
lacks some features that Maximizer has but as long as it’s open source and PHP,
I have the confidence to make changes to this application to suit my client’s
needs.
I believe I’ve convinced my boss that this would be a better option for our
clients and us. SugarCRM is free. The source codes are readily available for use
and modification. The catch is, I cannot charge for the codes. But I can charge
for hosting it or adding new features. Existing files that are modified do not
belong to me. New files that I’ve added do. View
SugarCRM Public License.
Maximizer on the other hand, charges by user accounts. For every user you
want to create and use in their CRM program, you would have to pay for a
license. For every user you want access through the web portal, you need another
license. This way of charging, is in fact, worse than their rival CRM program,
Goldmine. Where
you only need to pay for the amount of concurrent connecting users (which means
if you pay for 10-user license, any 10 users can login into the system at the
same time. The 11th user will have to wait for someone to logout.), and you can
create any number of user accounts.
Maximizer may be better than Goldmine but the charges are simply too absurd
if your company has a huge number of salespeople or people whom you want to
empower them with Maximizer.
Also, Maximizer is too cramped to use on my 15″ LCD monitor (resolution
1024*768) at work. You would need at least a 17″ LCD (1280*1024) to work with it
comfortably.
If I had continued generating white hairs over the process of customizing Maximizer, I would
have ended up spending time to go around the world to all my client’s offices and set up
the Maximizer software on their system should it be approved. Thanks to SugarCRM, I no longer need to
as it is a web application. Oh yea, unless it’s Japan, I hate travelling overseas. ;)