A few newbie questions :)

[epspader]

I found SugarCRM today and absolutely like what I see. I read the manual (and wish there was more to read -- it seems a little thin) and have a few nagging questions.

First, is there a "groups" option (similar to ACT!) or a possible workaround where contacts can be grouped by type? For example, my company presently has 100+ company types. We need to be able to search for contact by type, and each contact can have multiple types. Because of the sheer number of types, adding checkbox fields to the contact record would be impossible. I had hoped that there was a multi-select list box available for creating a field but no such luck.

Can you do a search by meetings and events? For example, we need to run badges for attendees and would need to be able to pull a list of contacts registered for an event.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Bryan]

Look at the prospect lists feature. I just completed a move from ACT! to Sugar and was able to retain our Groups through that feature.

[epspader]

Look at the prospect lists feature. I just completed a move from ACT! to Sugar and was able to retain our Groups through that feature.

Thank you. But I can't find this feature.

[Bryan]

Under the Campaigns tab.

[epspader]

Under the Campaigns tab.

Aha! Great! Thank you!

Now how do I do a search on prospect lists so I can export the contacts? For that matter, how do I do a search by event and pull up a list of contacts for export or reporting?

[johnol]

Good questions. First, I highly recommend that if you're running the Open Source version you have a look at the following modules which will upgrade the capabilities of Sugar:

http://sugarforge.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=534

Mr Milk has done an awesome job of creating some truly "must have" modules. Of particular interest for your situation might be http://www.sugarforge.org/projects/powerprospect/ which add some really nice search capabilities.

Check those out and see if they help you in your quest.

The other thing to bear in mind (which is a REAL advantage of Sugar vs. something like Act or Goldmine) is that you have access to all of the RAW, LIVING data. There are some great 3rd party open source utilities that you can use to generate some fantastic reports from the MySQL data - so you needn't feel bound.

One such reporting tool (there are several) is http://datavision.sourceforge.net/ which is like an Open Source version of Crystal Reports.

Hope that helps! Sugar is a great platform and can do quite a bit if given the chance.

-John

www.progresspays.com