Top Open-source Platforms For CRM Application Development
CRM application development has become an inevitable need for enterprises of all sizes to improve their customer services and augment sales efforts. A comprehensive CRM tool enables enterprises to effectively handle their customer interactions, manage sales activities, drive conversions, and boost ROI. At the same time, it facilitates seamless communications with prospective clients through effective lead management and automated follow-ups.
Despite the many benefits of CRM application development, several small-to-medium enterprises refrain from investing in CRM systems, mainly due to financial constraints. However, there are several ERP vendors in the market that offer open-source platforms for CRM application development. While these platforms are not backed by the industry leaders like SAP, Oracle and Microsoft, they have an impeccable market presence and an extensive customerbase. Above all, they are relatively cheaper and can do wonders for startups and small-to-medium enterprises when implemented by experts.
Let’s move ahead and delve into the technical details of the best open-source CRM platforms with a focus on their pros and cons. Subsequently, you can decide which one out these best addresses your business requirements.
Zoho CRM Plus
Zoho is a SaaS-based solution provider that offers a host of enterprise solutions including open-source CRM and HRM software development. The company has grown tremendously over the years to become a leading enterprise solutions provider.
Zoho CRM Plus is a standalone software suite for customer relationship management that offers 10+ dedicated CRM modules to handle diverse business functions. It enables enterprises to efficiently manage their sales, marketing, project management, and customer service operations with a focus on effective data handling and processing. Over recent years, Zoho CRM Plus has become increasingly popular with customers ranging from SMEs to fortune 500 companies.
Pros
- A complete CRM package with several add-ons
- Value for money
- Easy to scale and customize
- Ease of integration with third-party modules and legacy systems
- Availability of 11 distinct CRM modules
- Facilitates seamless communications and omnichannel interactions
- Intuitive dashboard and excellent community support
Cons
- Documentation could have been better with easy tutorials
- Relatively complex integration procedure
- Users have reported difficulties in scheduling calls
- Users have experienced delay in support and troubleshooting
- Lacks mobile app solutions
- May require additional sales tools
Odoo CRM
Odoo is one of the most extensively used open-source ERP platforms that offers a host of enterprise solutions including CRM application development. Odoo offers a fully customizable CRM module that enables enterprises to efficiently manage their customer services and sales operations. Odoo CRM module combines 8+ powerful applications and plugins to render holistic support for customer relationship management and business development. At the same time, it aims at strengthening customer service efforts that is imperative for building healthy customer relations. The core components of Odoo CRM module are:
1. Customer Relationship Management
2. CRM Gamification
3. Survey CRM
4. Marketing Campaign
5. Resellers
6. Lead To Issue
7. Contact Form
8. Opportunity To Quotation
Let’s now take a quick glance at the pros and cons of the Odoo CRM module.
Pros
- Availability of 8+ standalone CRM modules
- Intuive dashboard interface for both on-premise and cloud application
- Ease of integration between proprietary modules
- Easy to integrate with third-party modules and legacy systems
- Flexible, scalable, and easy to customize
- Robust community support and extensive documentation
Cons
- Requires experienced developers as it supports multiple languages
- Bug fixing from Odoo team is relatively slow
- The core version excludes several localizations
- The enterprise version is expensive as compared to other ERP vendors
- Reporting is slow and more prone to errors
- BI tools require several crucial upgrades
ERPNext
ERPNext is yet another open-source platform that offers cost-effective enterprise solutions to address cross-industry business challenges. Although it is relatively new as compared to other ERP vendors, ERPNext appears to be a promising candidate with robust community support. Coming to the CRM part, ERPNext offers a highly customizable CRM module with all essential features and CRM functionalities.
The CRM module enables enterprises to strengthen their customer service efforts and boost sales by facilitating omnichannel interactions and improved customer support. Besides, it enables managers to gain total visibility into their sales pipeline. ERPNext also offers marketing automation to enhance the brand’s online visibility, drive maximum conversions and boost ROI.
Pros
- Open-source CRM software suite that doesn’t require licensing fee
- Easy customization procedure with minimal coding complexities
- Easy to maintain and quick troubleshooting
- Ease of development and robust community support
- Integration support for a wide range of apps and enterprise systems
- Simplified reporting tools and advanced analytics support
- Faster configuration procedures and highly scalable modules
- Cost-effective and best suited for small-to-medium enterprises
Cons
- Lacks several crucial features and functionalities
- Not suitable for large-scale enterprises
- Relatively new to the market and hence not very reliable as of yet
- Users have reported upgrade issues with customized versions
- Complex setup procedure for roles and permissions
Opentaps
Opentaps is a fully integrated enterprise application suite that provides full-scale ERP and CRM solutions to solve complex business problems. It is an open-source platform that offers a host of enterprise modules including CRM/HRM, eCommerce, inventory/warehouse, finance, and supply chain management (SCM). Besides, you get advanced business intelligence tools and analytics features. Above all, it is easy to integrate with a variety of third-party modules, existing enterprise systems, and legacy applications.
Pros
- Offers complete support for ERP and CRM application development
- Availability of all essential CRM modules
- Easy to scale, upgrade, and customize as per business requirements
- Open-source and no license cost required
- Ease of integration with a variety of modules and enterprise systems
- Development is relatively cheaper as compared to other ERP/CRM vendors
Cons
- Pricing plans are not clearly defined
- Users have faced upgrade issues with several modules
- Not suitable for large-scale companies
- Development procedures maybe complex and time consuming
Closing Remarks
The aforementioned CRM platforms have been designed to match the needs of all types of enterprises including startups, SMEs, and large-scale enterprises. The main advantage is that they go easy on the pocket (because of the open-source license) and offer great flexibility to manage a wide range of business functions. Understandably, each platform has its own set of features, benefits and limitations as well. Therefore, it is advisable to consult an experienced ERP software development company beforehand to ensure that you move in the right direction.
Why Choose Oodles ERP For CRM Application Development?
We are a 360-degree ERP development company that provides full-scale enterprise solutions with a focus on software development using next-gen technologies. Our development team is proficient at using a variety of open-source tools and platforms like Zoho, Odoo, OFBiz, ERPNext, and Opentaps amongst many others. We have successfully completed several full-scale ERP+CRM projects for startups and small-to-medium sized businesses. With a proven track record in CRM application development, we have 100+ satisfied customers from across the globe. For more information, reach us out at erp@oodlestechnologies.com.
