My company is attempting to configure Sugar Professional for telemarketing campaigns. Out of the box, SugarCRM is quite cumbersome for the task. Several attempts with Sugar customer service to obtain answers regarding how to configure SugarCRM to be an effective telemarketing system have been unsuccessful, so I am reaching out to the community.

Targets are loaded in as leads. I have added "Called" and "Do not call" checkboxes to the leads module and the lead summary screen. Here is our workflow:

1. Sales person browses to the leads module, which fortunately remembers which page they left off on.
2. She clicks "Edit" on a lead of interest
3. A call is placed, and the contact record is updated accordingly.
4. The submit button is pressed, which uses HTTP POST to submit the changes to Sugar.
5. Sugar displays the lead details page.
6. The Leads tab is pressed to get back to the list.

Efficiency is key to any telesales initiative. What if the sales person sees a company that will not be a good target. They still have to go through the process of; edit....modify record...submit...details page....back to leads list...scroll down to the last where they left off. All this just to flag a record so it doesn't show up in their call list next time.

Also, using HTTP POST without Ajax is so twentieth century. It slows the user down, and eliminates the use of the browser's back button. It would be nice if we could modify records directly from the lead list.

Here is what I think should be included in any telemarketing system:

1. Quickly mark leads as called, and do-not-call using AJAX instead of HTTP POST.
2. Record the time and duration of the call
3. Remember and flag the person called so it's easy to get back.
4. Asterisk or FreeSwitch integration

I would hate to reinvent the wheel if such a beast already exists. The closest I have found is Kinamu, but they are in Germany and haven't responded to any of my inquiries.

Any suggestions?

-Tom