I am Disappointed with SUGAR!!! :(

[Mvikz]

Hi I am a newbie to CRM configurations. I have a small team for which i wanted to configure CRM.
Earlier I have been Using ZOHOCRM for the same.

I am running Hosted SUgar 5.1 community edition.
Why did i switch to Sugar?
Obviously because of the hype of it being the best CRM for small Businesses and plus am a big fan of Open Source.

What did i find out?
Sugar is far below expectation, small things which are no brainers have been so god damn difficult, sorry to use the language but am really frustrated.

let me give you few examples:
I customized the fields , there were very few customization as i am only using very basic features.
It went oki, there were times where it did behave weird but there were work arounds, and the basic excuse for it not working is that SUGAR does not support COMMUNITY edition, where as you the community is the reason its so famed.

Then i decided to try importing the data . It went fine.
Then i wanted to import the same data from another source, now the magic happens,
now i have duplicate entries even though i had marked for updation..

What to do?? again work around, since there is no mass find duplicates and merge, started doing it manually for just meagre 300 records, thank god i only had that many...

now i had accounts filled FINALLLY!! now repeat the above process for contacts , same results but now new fun, it showed import failed!!! wel no clue what happened, no reason , just import failed.
again what to do ?? work around, try again,so i tried to reimport, again and again and again... finally i gave up.. just to realize, same contacts have been imported multiple times, now i have 2000 contacts, i.e 200 ten times!!!!

again wat to do?? simple select all and delete.. so tried it... it gets interesting now deletes only 56 entries!!! no reason why, but the fun is now i have 2000 entries that is deleting 40 times .. wat else to do? be a donkey do the donkey work...
did that.

Finally i get some things in place.. now i decide to configure email , another wonderful journey begins, every little change u make and save, it retrieves every single mail again.. so it takes you a good half day to configure it correctly.

Then i decide to send mail, it goes without any problem and I am SURPRISED..!! happy , until i see two copies in sent mail , now why would there be two copies?? another search begins, no clue atleast the receiver gets one, so i ditch the efforts.

I was happy to have done these meagre tasks finally event though i had lost good 15 days for it, thank god i was doing it on my spare time.

Now i thought that sugar will handle all the mails very well, once i have imported all my mails.
But no, someone sitting in the Sugar development center decides to play a joke on all the users so he decides to decouple and make life a good hard work by having to import every single mail MANUALLY!!!!!!!! God bless his soul for being so intelligent.

So this is my current status, after 15 days and around 100 hours spent i am stuck on these tiny weeny things.
Hope GOD will send me a guiding light to over come this monterous task of configuring and actually making SUgar usable.

What was life prior to sugar?
Since we were a small business we wanted to try CRM and probably get one for us soon. I had heard about ZOHOCRm so we create the free accounts there and configure it a little, try the mail settings and voila we are up and running in 2 days working part time. Not bad, i found it very user friendly and good increase in productivity.

I recommend others to have an installed version of our own and later purchase it. So we searched net, found SUGAR to be most user friendly and highly rated.

And thats how all of this started.. and the story continues, since i had recommended we use this so am trying hard to use it .

Hope GOD gives some insights to our dear sugar development team and our souls have some peace.
I love Open source but i hate people who bring bad name to it, so i will try my best to use SUGAR and with the communities help probably would succeed.
Amen

Thanks
Regards,
Vikz

[SugarDev.net]

Definitely know what you're going through, the app has a long way to go.

But, just for the hack of it, let's recap.

and the basic excuse for it not working is that SUGAR does not support COMMUNITY edition, where as you the community is the reason its so famed.

You don't work for free. Support isn't free. Professional support is _never_ free in the software world you're so fond of, namely open source. That's why it says "AS IS".

all import bashing

Importing is a craft that almost no application does really well. Especially if you're going to import existing records in already-filled databases. It usually requires manual work. Sugar gives you some functionality but if you're serious about this, get an expert to handle it for you.
edit: And recently I had to import some 20.000 records (accounts, contacts, some custom modules), re-label dropdowns, add relationships, etc. On top of that, I had to create a couple of dozen prospectlists from those contacts. After a few hours of scripting and about 150 lines, it all worked. Once you know how to mutate records and create relationships on a programming level, Sugar is very, very powerful.

all email bashing

Yup, it's very ambitious to create a integrated email module in AJAX.

So this is my current status, after 15 days and around 100 hours spent i am stuck on these tiny weeny things.

You know, as long as we're both ranting, I might as well add that I cannot imagine that any expert would spent 100 hours to tailor your SugarCRM to your needs.

[Mvikz]

HI Sugardev.net

well you definitely seem to be very experienced with sugar, i have no issue they not supporting the "AS IS" edition, my only question is that whatever little is OpenSource should have quality to atleast solve basic issues.

And as i said i am very new to CRM , and am doing the simplest of the things only , which i feel should have been very robust by now since Sugar has over a million downloads!!!!!!

I dont expect it to be professional class but atleast not absolute crap.

and i have only mentioned things which are taken for granted on all the CRM's even those which are not even comparable to SUgar and are just newbies.. if you can, then try ZOHO and feeel the experience.

Its simply a shame to mention SUGAR as open source , after going through the issues i have been through.

[SugarDev.net]

I will take Zoho for a spin today, I need more experience with comparable crm apps anyway .
edit: Pfew that zoho app shares a lot of the GUI with Sugar..love the predefined views. Hate the colors :P

You have to understand that a CRM is, in my opinion, a piece of software that needs to be managed by experts, just like the rest of your IT infrastructure.

[andopes]

Hi Mvikz

As SugarDev.net told it is very interesting to know other CRM options available, specially for business guys.
I´m going to take a look at this too and I would like to invitee you to ask your questions into SugarForum.

There are a lots of very experienced members fully able to answer any kind of questions.
It can save a whole week or since a month of work.

Enjoy the SugarForum.

Best regards

[Mvikz]

HI Andre,

Thanks for your support, am looking for the community support because i have lost much of the faith in the sugar development team, because if they cant do simple things right, they have bigger issues []....

I have been so delusional because of the frustration with amount of work i have done and so less output i have received that I couldnt see the "HELP" thread in the forum [:O]...

Still hoping against all hope that i would be able to make this work and be able to contribute to the Community soon.

@sugardev.net, give me your opinion on ZOHO and tell me what should i do further, is it worth the time and money here?
@Andre , since you too have been an expert at sugar please pour in your suggestions and comments.

Hope your insights will give some clues to Sugar development team to understand what CRM should work like.

By the way, I have worked with SAP earlier so i guess i may be new to CRM implementation, but aint a total fresher.

Thanks to the community.

Regards,
MVikz

[pblag]

There are a lots of very experienced members fully able to answer any kind of questions.
It can save a whole week or since a month of work.

Best regards

Hi Mvikz!

Unfortunately SugarCRM inc provides support only for commercial versions of sugarcrm.

But if you need any help please feel free to contact us, we are always ready to help.

[agcopley]

Hi there,
I just thought I'd give my two cents worth....I have been working in CRM for some 10 years :-( and originally looked at Zoho as a way of providing some easy access to CRM for my beginning clients.

However you very quickly run into thye limits of what is customizable for Zoho and I just wasnt able to fine tune it to my clients needs. Additionally they provided no API at the time, which was over a year in coming and is still not reliable.
Then there is the question of payment...if you read carefully their terms and conditions you will get a nasty surprise.

The learning curve for Sugar is rather steep and the meta framework has a long way to go BUT it is completely customizable
and at the end of the exercise you have a application for which no additional payment is required and which you can change at will and is under your control (Zoho frequently updates and breaks existing aplications...read the forums)

Zoho has introduced a MarketPlace where Zoho techs can sell their apps/add-ons but it is years away from being as rich and active as Sugar community.

I dont hate Zoho and indeed I use some of their products (Wiki etc) but they are about making money and it will be you that helps them with this