B2C use with expanded sales tracking, sanity check requested

[dansut]

I'm a new user to SugarCRM but have been involved in many open source projects and work daily coding with LAMP and related systems.

Installed 5.0 CE as a test over a month ago and have been playing with, and reading around, on and off since then. Upgrade to 5.1 and this week to 5.1a with no issues. I'm overall really impressed and really like what is available, whether it is really suitable for my intended usage is yet another question and one I'd be very grateful of some guidance on...

I'm looking for an automation solution for a specialized travel agency, in the long term they definitely need much of the functionality that a full CRM solution can provide (managing email marketing campaigns, guiding the telesales force, integrating with Web site) but right now the business in question has grown rapidly is in crisis with some particular problems that are priority to solve now. As I mention in the subject line this is really a B2C environment but I've read a few discussions here on that and think it's best just to ignore that and create Accounts on the fly as needed. The initial problem we would like to solve is keeping track of a Booking (or Sale), once we are happy with this we want to start to look at Leads and all the other good built in functionality.

So, here's what I am thinking of doing and what I would like advice on from people who are much more familiar with SugarCRM than the limited amount of knowledge I have acquired by playing and reading so far. I am envisioning creating a custom module that I am going to call Booking (it will effectively represent a sale) and eventually would want to be able to convert a Lead into one of these once the deal is closed. A Booking would have multiple Contacts (and an Account although this is unlikely to be reusable or a real company) and we would continue to assign Activities to the Booking such as the ones that already exist (Calls, Notes, Emails, etc) but also some new ones specifically Payments (of which a number are usually made before the total cost is paid and this needs to be easily trackable so prob another custom Module). A Booking also needs the details of the people who are going on the trip stored and I envsion this as multiple Passenger records associated with a Booking (where the Passenger is a custom module also). Passengers may or may not be attached in a one-to-one relationship with a Contact, ie there will be extra details above and beyond what is stored in a Contact (eg. passport#, allergies, etc) but some details will be duplicated (eg. name) because I don't see every Passenger having a full Contact record.

I think that is the basics, so the question really is whether I am looking to make SugarCRM into something it won't fit well, and any advice that can be given for the potential task ahead of me will be very gratefully accepted. If I have not made anything clear then please ask away and I'll respond ASAP.

Cheers
/dan

[terry31]

I'm a new user to SugarCRM but have been involved in many open source projects and work daily coding with LAMP and related systems.

Installed 5.0 CE as a test over a month ago and have been playing with, and reading around, on and off since then. Upgrade to 5.1 and this week to 5.1a with no issues. I'm overall really impressed and really like what is available, whether it is really suitable for my intended usage is yet another question and one I'd be very grateful of some guidance on...

I'm looking for an automation solution for a specialized travel agency, in the long term they definitely need much of the functionality that a full CRM solution can provide (managing email marketing campaigns, guiding the telesales force, integrating with Web site) but right now the business in question has grown rapidly is in crisis with some particular problems that are priority to solve now. As I mention in the subject line this is really a B2C environment but I've read a few discussions here on that and think it's best just to ignore that and create Accounts on the fly as needed. The initial problem we would like to solve is keeping track of a Booking (or Sale), once we are happy with this we want to start to look at Leads and all the other good built in functionality.

So, here's what I am thinking of doing and what I would like advice on from people who are much more familiar with SugarCRM than the limited amount of knowledge I have acquired by playing and reading so far. I am envisioning creating a custom module that I am going to call Booking (it will effectively represent a sale) and eventually would want to be able to convert a Lead into one of these once the deal is closed. A Booking would have multiple Contacts (and an Account although this is unlikely to be reusable or a real company) and we would continue to assign Activities to the Booking such as the ones that already exist (Calls, Notes, Emails, etc) but also some new ones specifically Payments (of which a number are usually made before the total cost is paid and this needs to be easily trackable so prob another custom Module). A Booking also needs the details of the people who are going on the trip stored and I envsion this as multiple Passenger records associated with a Booking (where the Passenger is a custom module also). Passengers may or may not be attached in a one-to-one relationship with a Contact, ie there will be extra details above and beyond what is stored in a Contact (eg. passport#, allergies, etc) but some details will be duplicated (eg. name) because I don't see every Passenger having a full Contact record.

I think that is the basics, so the question really is whether I am looking to make SugarCRM into something it won't fit well, and any advice that can be given for the potential task ahead of me will be very gratefully accepted. If I have not made anything clear then please ask away and I'll respond ASAP.

Cheers
/dan

Alternative energy sources are, I think,
and there is that direction which will deduce the world from crisis.
The epoch of oil and gas monopolies will end.