[nzlug] (slightly)OT - huge OSS opportunity

[David McNab]

Craig Box wrote:
>> The bottom line - all the web-based groupware apps suck!
>> SugarCRM sucks slightly less, so I've gone with that. But it still has
>> major problems.
> 
> SugarCRM is not "groupware".  I define groupware personally as being
> calendaring/contacts/e-mail etc,

SugarCRM does all that.

> because Microsoft Exchange has beaten
> that into me.  However, some of the other things you want come under the
> terms of 'project management' as much as groupware.

I define 'groupware' as vaguely business/work-related software which
holds a common set of data accessible by multiple users within an
organisation. This can embrace CRM, projects, ERM etc.

> Excluding the PHP complaints, you might want to try looking at something
> like ActiveCollab: http://www.activecollab.com/

Seems to be good for what its intended for.

> The problem is that you then have Zimbra-for-e-mail, SugarCRM for CRM,
> ActiveCollab for project management.. etc, and they're not really
> integrated.  It's not really as simple to join these things on the web
> in the way you can on a desktop.

It's fortunate that SugarCRM does email, project management,
calendaring, notes, documents and contacts, and integrates these areas
quite well.

Its faults and oversights are annoying, but (the latest pre-release 4.5
version) does 70-80% of what I want without me having to twist myself in
too many directions. And with its superlative installation/upgrade
wizards, I don't have to see a single line of PHP or SQL.

Cheers
David