Is the Enterprise Ready Open Source Java CRM technology a killer app?
Open Source has been here for quite some time and large and smaller enterprises have learned to deal with it. With developing commercial open source business models and a shake out of who the winners in each category are, software evaluation and acquisition has become easier and less risky. Are you looking for a database? Then typically your choice will be MySQL. An application server? Sure, JBoss should be a safe bet. Business intelligence? Pentaho or Jasper will be the answer. For document management you probably are going to select Alfresco. And the list goes on. Only in a few domains there are many or no clear leaders. The exception is certainly Content Management where some 2’000 plus technologies fight for users, but even there the short list can easily be reduced to 5-8 players and if programming language is a criteria you probably don’t need to look at more than 3. Is Customer Relationship Management different in this aspect? Well, at first sight SugarCRM seems to be the clear leader and it certainly has more downloads and paying customers than most other CRM tools out there. But it caters more for small and midrange customers or for departmental applications than for the large enterprise. And the fact that it is PHP based limits its use in many strongly Java focused IT departments.
There is clearly room for a Java based componentized CRM platform that can be integrated with existing CRM applications as easy as used stand alone. It needs to support open standards and allow for low effort configuration and customizations while still remaining upgradeable. And it needs to be able to compete with the Siebels and SAPs of this world, not in terms of functional richness as nobody can consume all what Siebel is offering, but in terms of being extendable and customizable. While there are Java based CRM technologies out there such as Adempiere, Compiere or OpenCRX none of them is really state-of-the-art in many aspects, be it concerning the integration of the online channel, the features for campaign management and marketing analytics/automation or the quality and adaptability of their frontends. They are not customizable to the extent Enterprises need it. And they have in common that they are not componentized, you either use the whole thing or you take another. And finally the lack the ease of use and low effort install approach that is needed to be effective as an open source vendor. So, who will take this challenge and is there a business case for the “Alfresco” of CRM? I strongly believe so and I can guarantee that VCs do so too if the right team comes with the right plan and ideally at least half of the technology already built. And what has been said is at as well true for the even larger ERP domain.
But remember, commercial open source is at least as much about online marketing and highly efficient and effective sales processes than about software.
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