Newbie questions

[mi0870888]

Hello all,

I'm new the SugarCRM. Hope someone would help me with the following questions:

1. Can I manage multiple line of business using one instance of SugarCRM?
2. For "On-Demand" version, can I have the application modified/customized?
3. VOIP integration. Is it possible? If yes, what is the recommended plug-in/module?
4. GIS integration (either Google Map, or ESRI ). Is it possible? If yes, what is the recommended plug-in/module?
5. Any suggestion for Asset Management and Inventory Control

Thanks all in advance.

Cheer!

[vishwasrao]

hi,
welcome here,

you can use sugarcrm for your all purposes listed in your thread.
Best way to learn is download & install community version of sugar ,install it & learn it.
It is great tool.

[shailendra001]

Hello all,

I'm new the SugarCRM. Hope someone would help me with the following questions:

1. Can I manage multiple line of business using one instance of SugarCRM?

Please elaborate what do you mean by multiple line of business

2. For "On-Demand" version, can I have the application modified/customized?

yes ,most of customization can be done through modules builder and Studio that is available in On Demand ,
for On - Demand you will not get code access , but you can create installation package that can be installed through modules loader ( a GUI )

3. VOIP integration. Is it possible? If yes, what is the recommended plug-in/module?

Yes it is possible , recommended plug in - Liz, full featured Asterisk plug-in

4. GIS integration (either Google Map, or ESRI ). Is it possible? If yes, what is the recommended plug-in/module?

Yes it is possible

5. Any suggestion for Asset Management and Inventory Control

can be done through inventory control modules , build though modules builder


This may help you to understand SugarCRM

Kind Regards
Shailendra

[mi0870888]

Please elaborate what do you mean by multiple line of business

Thanks all for the info. What I meant by multiple lines of business was for example, I have a business selling T-shirts, and then another business doing house cleaning service, and another business doing totally different thing. How should I structure my Sugar? One instance for each business? or one instance to manage all business?

Thanks again!

[Angel]

The problem with attempting to do that is that Sugar is designed to be used by one business only.

Through the use of security roles or other customizations, you could distinguish which records go with a specific business, but in the end you will find that it will not be flexible enough to fully address two or more business as it wasn't designed to do that.

Here is a good example:

Suppose that when you enter a contact record for your t-shirt business, you want to make sure you capture data pertaining to the person's size, preference on material and other related matters. However, when you enter a new contact relating to the cleaning business, you would want to focus on things like special instructions, things not to touch, square footage of place, etc.

The issue here is that Sugar won't distinguish between one record versus the other. You would get the same data entry screen for both, which could be rather confusing.

You would be better served by having multiple instances of Sugar, one for each business.

As a side note, it could be customized to address this particular scenario, but it would take a significant amount of effort.

[mi0870888]

Thank you. That's very helpful.