CRM - Customer Relationship Management

Good definition of CRM here: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management

There are lots and lots and lots of commercial (and expensive) CRM packages from which to choose.

There are also more than quite a few open-source CRM solutions too (some of questionable quality).

Surely, though, TWiki is an ideal platform for a CRM system. According to TWikiInstallation, at least one company has implemented TWiki as a CRM system, but my bet is that there are lots more.

Basic requirements of a CRM system (thinking of this in the context of a sales environment as one possible use):

• a list of potential customers/clients
  • each with its own contact details
• a list of interactions with each client (phonecalls, emails, etc)
  • date/time stamped
  • searchable
• assigning of actions to users
• reporting capability
  • current 'hot prospects', say
  • how many phonecalls TeleSalesPerson2 made today
  • current status of all SalesProposals
• query/filter/skin capability
  • to allow (for example) production of mailing lists
  • for possible easy importing of data to external apps to produce graphs/more complex reports

Lots (if not all) of the components of a system like this already exist within TWiki (ActionTrackerPlugin, web forms, search, FormQueryPlugin, etc). However, the combining of them into a coherent CRM framework would be extremely useful.

I believe that it could benefit TWikiAdvocacy greatly if more examples of real-world applications such as CRM systems could be publically accessible through the twiki.org site.

I do understand that it's difficult to provide a link to a site with a working TWiki/CRM system, since, by their nature, these sites include customer/company-sensitive data and are typically behind a firewall. However, since the TWiki environment is entirely capable of providing an excellent CRM system, is anybody keen on porting a framework of their (private/behind firewall) CRM system to a publically accessible site? Or perhaps there are in fact publically-accessible sites already - do you have any examples?

-- RossC - 25 Jul 2003

Hi. I also believe that unifying the TWiki with CRM functionalities one would have a unique tool at least for a small-medium sized company.

I am wondering whether any progress has been done from the previous message. Is anyone aware of any usable plug-in/add-on for TWiki offering a bundle of classic CRM capabilities?

-- EdgardoCarena - 10 May 2005