Considering SugarCRM - Some questions

[mlittle]

I am considering SugarCRM and have some questions about functionality:

1. I need some sort of case tracking. Is this part of the software and can customers log in to see the status of their case?
2. Is there some sort of document generator. We need to create letters and I would need a way to have a template system so we can generate letter with tags like customer name, address, etc. and print out a pdf or doc.
3. How difficult is it to add fields to the system - for customization.

Thanks

[Angel]

I am considering SugarCRM and have some questions about functionality:

1. I need some sort of case tracking. Is this part of the software and can customers log in to see the status of their case?

Yes, it is capable of doing both of these things. However, the Case module is somewhat basic in some regards, so your mileage will vary depending on your specific functional requirements.

2. Is there some sort of document generator. We need to create letters and I would need a way to have a template system so we can generate letter with tags like customer name, address, etc. and print out a pdf or doc.

Yes, it is possible to generate Word documents, or better stated, perform Word mail merges. Depending on the version of Sugar that you go with, you might need to pay extra for the capability.

3. How difficult is it to add fields to the system - for customization.

Thanks

Well, "difficult" is a relative term. There is an interface that allows you to do it by means of a few clicks. I'd describe the process as simple, but then again, I've been doing this type of work for over 15 years. In general, I would say that even novice users should not have a problem doing it, but might require a little guidance at first.

You might want to check out http://university.sugarcrm.com as well as http://developers.sugarcrm.com as they have some great tutorials on a variety of topics, including using the Studio, the tool used for such customizations.

[mlittle]

Angel,

thanks for the response and help. On the document creation we need something that would create the document in the crm package (for later retrieval) and so we can print from CRM. This is probably the biggest requirement for us. We need to have a doc template and create a printable document from customer information.

What do you think?

[Angel]

I am a little unclear as to what your ultimate goal is, but if you mean that you are wanting to save the end result of a merged document, you could do it via the Documents module. You could also link it to a specific record as an attachment.

However, both would require someone to have merged the document template in advance via Word. There isn't a built-in method for it to create documents without having Word.

[longreach]

You might like to see what we did for a server side mail merge capability in info@hand using RTF templates- sounds more like what you are describing than a client-side Word-based process. http://infoathand.com/videos/info@ha...il%20Merge.mov