Five tools for achieving better CRM

By Jack Wallen January 23, 2013, 2:35 AM PST

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X2 CRM 1

ntThis gallery is also available as a post in the Five Apps Blog.

ntCustomer Relationship Management (CRM) is a tool that many small, medium, and large businesses depend upon for the efficient management of clients and customers. Without these tools the ability to keep solid records and communication with external resources becomes a challenge that can immediately affect bottom line. The good news is you don’t have to spend a fortune to have a powerful tool to keep your client base happily connected. The open source community has plenty of web-based CRM tools to that run the gamut of features and power. I have found five such tools to make your customer relationship efficient and flexible. Let’s take a look and see if one of these tools fits your needs.

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ntFive apps

nt1. X2 CRM

ntX2 CRM is a powerhouse of a tool that offers features such as: email marketing campaigns, web leads capture, and route leads based on business rules.

ntCredit: Images by Jack Wallen for TechRepublic

X2 CRM 2

ntWith X2 CRM you can also engage and correspond with prospects, price and generate sales quotes, and easily define your sales process, reports, and charts. It also provides a powerful administration tool with mobile client applications. With X2 CRM you can either purchase a hosted solution or install the software on your own, internal hardware.

ntCredit: Images by Jack Wallen for TechRepublic

Sugar CRM 1

nt2. Sugar CRM

ntSugar CRM might well be one of the most widely used CRM tools on the planet. Used by Chevrolet, Coca Cola, Loomis, and more u2013 Sugar CRM has all the tools you need to ensure the efficient management of customers.

ntCredit: Images by Jack Wallen for TechRepublic

Sugar CRM 2

ntSugar offers a Community edition that, along with being open source, features: Personal home pages, activity management, contacts, accounts, project management, campaigns, web-to-lead forms, dashboards, cases, email client, email marketing, leads, opportunities, bug tracking, and a shared calendar.

ntCredit: Images by Jack Wallen for TechRepublic

Dolibarr 1

nt3. Dolibarr

ntDolibarr may not be the most well-known CRM tool, but it offers everything you need to make the management of your customers a snap.

ntCredit: Images by Jack Wallen for TechRepublic

Dolibarr 2

ntDolibarr features: products and services catalog, stock management, bank accounts management, customers directory, orders management, commercial proposals, contract management, invoice management, invoices and payment management, standing orders, shipping, NRP VAT support, agenda, and much more. Dolibarr offers an incredible simple installation routine and can have you up and running quickly.

ntCredit: Images by Jack Wallen for TechRepublic

OpenCRX 1

nt5. OpenCRX

ntOpenCRX is another powerhouse CRM solution that combines groupware and CRM in one outstanding package, And with an easy to use, Java-based installer, OpenCRX is a solution nearly any small to medium-sized business should give a serious look at.

ntCredit: Images by Jack Wallen for TechRepublic

OpenCRX 2

ntWith OpenCRX you can manage your customers, accounts, products, sales, calendar, and more. OpenCRX does a great job of managing activity and tracking sales and offers plenty of customizations to make it easily fit within your business.

ntBottom line

ntThere is no excuse to not take advantage of one of these powerful Customer Relationship Management tools. If you’re serious about growing your business and making the relationship between your business and your customers a smooth one, you need to give at least one of these CRM tools a try.

ntAlso read:

ntt7 CRM vendors that integrate with Google Apps

ntt10 things SMBs should look for in a CRM

nttLeverage your CRM to its full potential

ntCredit: Images by Jack Wallen for TechRepublic

By Jack Wallen

Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic, The New Stack, and Linux New Media. He's covered a variety of topics for over twenty years and is an avid promoter of open source. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.

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