How Startups And SME's Can Leverage Open Source CRM To Increase Business

- Limesh Parekh

While CRM has proven its versatile potential for large enterprises in areas beyond sales, marketing and customer service requirements, it is yet to make its contribution felt among the start-ups and SME’s who currently rely largely on the ERP software.

Open source CRM is a financially and technically viable solution compared to ERP for start-ups and small enterprises. While ERP assists with maintaining essential business data and records, CRM can help in vital data management, analysis and predictive insights into key business areas like marketing, customer engagement, sales, vendor relationships, employees and talent management and training, thus contributing to the overall business growth.

ADVANTAGES OF USING OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

Cost: Open source CRM is a good solution for SMEs and start up’s to achieve business success at reduced expenses. With availability of the source codes and absence of a license fee, the open source CRM is virtually free and requires a minimal investment into hardware, customization and integration.

Quality: Despite being developed by community, the open source CRM software in recent years boasts of a rigorous inspection and quality assurance process. Nearly all new releases and stable versions are exposed to a battery of tests for software quality before being launched.