Too much Sugar(CRM)!

November 12, 2007 3:26 PM

Anyone know of a super simple, web based contact/history manager? A client is looking to upgrade from an old FileMaker database. It's an order-based business, but there are also consultations, interviews, etc. that happen with some customers. I'd like to find an app that I can export customers and order details from the website to and add a history function so that he can pull up a complete profile on the customer when he talks with them on the phone. Ideally, it would be an open source app that I can run on a local web server, but I suppose a hosted app would be fine as well. I've tried SugarCRM but it has way too much functionality for this type of business. Thanks, Hivemind!
posted by cdmwebs to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Highrise from 37Signals is very nice to work with and should be simpler to use than SugarCRM.
posted by mikel at 3:32 PM on November 12, 2007

For hosted apps, Salesforce.com is the big, hulking gorilla of the bunch. Check 'em out. I've never used them personally, but their entire business model is, essentially, to do exactly what you're asking for.
posted by CrayDrygu at 3:43 PM on November 12, 2007

I administer Salesforce.com for my company, and it's exactly what you're looking for.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 5:04 PM on November 12, 2007

I tried salesforce.com a while back for a different arrangement. It seems to be on par with SugarCRM in this case 8211; it just has too many features.

This is a small shop with five employees max. Any other ideas?
posted by cdmwebs at 6:14 PM on November 12, 2007

Let me add my voice to cdmwebs' request. We also have about five people and are just looking for a way to store names and contact info, and contact history, online where it can be shared. I get dizzy just going to the SugarCRM website. I can't imagine trying to convince my coworkers to use it. There aren't enough hours in the day.

cdmwebs, if we break down and write something ourselves, I'll send you a copy!
posted by alms at 6:50 PM on November 12, 2007

cdmwebs, try looking at the featureset for the Group/Team Edition of SFDC. It's much simpler than the Professional/Enterprise/Unlimited editions.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 10:17 PM on November 12, 2007

We are also migrating from Sugar (which is known by another, less sweet name around my office...) to Highrise for long and torturous reasons mostly having to do with what an utterly bloated, kludgy piece of shite Sugar is.

For what you describe, Highrise sounds great. I know you can import contacts from Basecamp, so possibly there is a mechanism to import them from elsewhere in the correct format. If you can overcome that hurdle, it might work really well for you.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:32 AM on November 13, 2007

Highrise is very simple. They have a free version you can try out. The only issue would be importing data into it. I know they have an API.
posted by chunking express at 6:52 AM on November 13, 2007

Highrise is good, but has limited export capabilities.

Big Contacts also has a superb feature set, and allows you to export all your data at any time.

Neither unfortunately supports the ability to have one contact belong to multiple companies, a feature that I really want (sigh).
posted by worldshift at 4:04 AM on September 3, 2008