Comparing three open-source CRM Software Capsule, Zoho, and FreeCRM

Abstract— Developing and maintaining relationships with customers can be a challenge. In order to maintain those relationships, a CRM system is a must-have tools. But it's an essential task for businesses growth and survival. The Purpose of CRM, like any organizational initiative is to increase profit, in case of CRM, this is achieved mainly by providing a better service to your customers than your competitors. CRM not only improves the service to customers though; a good CRM capability will also reduce costs, wastage, and complaints Effective CRM also reduces staff stress, because attrition - a major cause of stress - reduces as services and relationships improve. CRM systems are one area in which open source shines brightly. Most open source CRMs system only require a web server, database, and browser to run.

Keywords- CRM, open-source CRM, Capsule, Zoho, FreeCRM

                                                                                                                                                                I.     Introduction

Developing and maintaining relationships with customers can be a challenge. But it's an essential task for businesses growth and survival. In order to maintain those relationships, a CRM system is a must-have tools.

CRM is short for customer relationship management. A CRM system is a web application that businesses use to organize information about their customers, leads, and other contacts. But a CRM system is more than just a list of contacts. It contains customers' details and history of their transactions with an organization, along with information about those customers' place or status in the sales process.

Many CRM systems can hook into financial and accounting systems to help organizations track earnings and costs. They can also provide analytics that enable a business to better predict a customer's future needs.

CRM systems are one area in which open source shines brightly. Most open source CRMs system only require a web server, database, and browser to run. Let's examine six open source tools designed to make managing customer relationships easier.

Based on that phenomenon, our team will try to make a comparison of three open-source from hundreds  CRM software available on the net.

                                                                                                                                                                  II.    discussion

A.    Capsule

·  Introduction

Fig. 1 Capsule logo

Capsule is free for up to two users with 10 MB of storage, and 250 contacts. To upgrade, it’s $12/user/month. With the upgrade comes two gigabytes of storage, 50,000 contacts, and integration with such applications as Mailchimp and Freshbooks.

Capsule’s best feature, according to its many glowing reviews, is its ability to integrate with at least 33 other software programs, including Mailchimp, Freshbooks, and Gmail.

In fact, according to the reviews, the only place Capsule is really lacking as a system is its customer support. While they have a FAQs section as well as helpful articles posted on their page, if you need any help after hours, you’re sunk. In addition, they offer no direct phone service. Rather, you must submit a form, though they do claim to call you back within a single business day.

TABLE I
PROFILE CAPSULE

Vendor	-
Database	PostgreSql,Sql, Oracle
Programming Language	Php, Ruby, Java
Maximum Users	2

• Architecture

Capsule is cloud base CRM which is can connect to many Cloud Apps

Fig. 2 Capsule Architecture

• Functionalities

a.     Easy to manage sales pipeline

                                                          

Fig. 3 Managing sales pipeline

o    Capsule can track bids, deals, proposals, and other opportunities.

o    Share opportunities with co-workers to enable easy collaboration.

o    Get a quick summary of opportunities on the go via the sales dashboard including potential values, where they're up to and what needs to be done next.

o    Keep track of where each opportunity is at, using milestones such as prospect -> meeting -> proposal -> won etc. Each milestone is linked with a success factor that is used to forecast potential sales revenues. Capsule includes a standard set of milestones or you can configure your own.

o    Keep track of the history of an opportunity by adding notes and attaching documents.

o    Generate reports and extracts from the pipeline using configurable filters.

b.     To-do list and calendar

Fig. 4 Creating to-do list and calendar

o    Create tasks for appointments, meetings, phone calls, submission deadlines etc.

o    Link tasks with contacts, opportunities or cases so it's easy to refer back to what the task was about

o    Share tasks with co-workers.

o    If you have standard processes such as the way you approach each sale configure these as "Tracks" in Capsule to enable the same set of tasks to be followed for each sales opportunity or case. Each task in a track can be linked to the previous task. For example, a "call back" task can be set due 5 days after an "initial call" task.

c.     Custom categories

Fig. 5 Building custom categories

o    Extend tags with your own custom fields that are relevant to your business. For example, if you sell to customers through partners you could add your own fields to the customer tag to record who the introducing partner was and the date of introduction.

o    Customize the sales milestones and process

o    Use "Tracks" to create standard processes for opportunities and cases.

o    Brand your Capsule account using your colors and logo.

B.    Zoho

• Introduction

Fig 6. Zoho logo

Zoho is one of the big dogs of business software, so it’s pretty cool that they offer a free program. This CRM version is free for three users and 5,000 records. It comes with a mobile app and social CRM among other things. This CRM version is free for 10 users and 5,000 records. It comes with a mobile app and social CRM among other things. Their first step upgrade (for more users, features, and 100,000 records) is only $12/user/month.

Zoho is well known for being easy to use with highly developed importing features.Unfortunately, Zoho is not as feature-rich as other CRMs.

TABLE II
PROFILE ZOHO

Vendor	Zoho Corp.
Database	MySQL
Programming Language	JAVA
Maximum Users	10

• Architecture

Zoho is online CRM which is can connect to other ERP

Fig 7. Zoho architecture

• Functionalities

o    CRM on-the-go

Fig 8. CRM Mobile features

Zoho CRM Mobile Edition is a native application that lets you access your CRM data anywhere, anytime from your mobile phones (iPhone, iPad and Android). With the Zoho CRM Mobile Edition, you will stay on top of the latest business developments, collaborate with your team and take the right business decisions, no matter where you are.

Access customer information while on the go and respond to calls or emails instantly. You can even find contacts and prospects nearby your current location and get the driving directions from the customer address information.

o    Sales Force Automation

Fig 9. Sales force automation

Zoho's sales force automation solution drives sales force performance and profitability by giving you everything you need to sell smarter. By automating your processes, it frees your people to concentrate on creating leads, closing deals and growing your customer relationships. Zoho SFA makes it simple to perform:

  Lead generation and qualification

  Pipeline analysis

  Sales stage and probability analysis

  Competitive analysis

  Sales forecasting

  Quota management

o    Sales Opportunity Tracking Software

Zoho CRM's sales opportunity tracking module provides an exclusive interface to store and manage information details relative to opportunities with fields like stage, probability and expected revenue. A quick assessment of opportunities is possible through reports and dashboards (sales funnel) specific to opportunity management.

Opportunities can be imported from external CRM solutions and associated with other records like contacts, competitors, products, and sales stage history, giving you a perspective covering all aspects of the sale. The Big Deal alert option can be used to signal everyone concerned about a major deal completed or nearing completion. Overall it enables you to close more deals while offering insight into improving future deals.

C.    Free CRM

·  Introduction

Fig 10. Free CRM Logo

Here’s another CRM that claims to be #1 at something. This time its #1 at online free CRM software for business (so again, technically no rivalry!).

This free version comes with 100 free users, 100,00 contacts, and all the basic features. The upgrade fee is $24.95/user/month for more features, storage, and support. Two major drawbacks up front: you only get one year free, and no customer support.

So what makes FreeCRM worth it? First, their upgraded system is actually one of the most affordable CRMs on the market for mid to large sized businesses. Second, it’s a web-based solution, so you don’t need to create an expensive and time-consuming infrastructure to host it on, meaning pretty much anyone can get it up and running with ease.

TABLE IIII
PROFILE FREECRM

Vendor	FreeCRM
Database	SQL
Programming Language	Java, Ruby
Maximum Users	100

·  Architecture

Free CRM is free CRM software for business

Fig 11. FreeCRM Architecture

·  Functionalities

o    Company Management

Fig 12. Company management features

Unlike typical contact management software systems, Free CRM does a lot more than merely capture leads. It moves you to the all-important next step of pursuing them in the most productive, efficient, and effective way so you can maximize their conversion to opportunities and ultimately, to successful sales.

o    CRM Synchronization

Fig 13. CRM Synchronization features

Sync your data to Windows and Outlook, iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices as well as PocketPC and Windows Mobile. True 2-Way Synchronization for handhelds and mobile devices, tablets, as well as Microsoft Outlook and Windows.

o    Campaigns using email

               

Fig 14. Zoho logo

CRM email functionality is not supposed to replace your current mail system or client, but works together with your existing email system to provide an automated distribution and integrated CRM system. Using your own POP account, you can distribute and track emails to customers, and with new loyalty management feature, you can create coupons and promotions and track them as customers and their friends drive more business to you with rewards programs

                                                                                                                                                                 III.   conclusion

The ultimate purpose of CRM, like any organizational initiative, is to increase profit. In the case of CRM this is achieved mainly by providing a better service to your customers than your competitors. CRM not only improves the service to customers though; a good CRM capability will also reduce costs, wastage, and complaints Effective CRM also reduces staff stress, because attrition - a major cause of stress - reduces as services and relationships improve.

There are many tools that can be use for CRM, each tools can be use for many use, with purpose to increase benefit of the organization.

Either Capsule, Zoho, and Free CRM has its pros and cons. Capsule can be used for maximum 2 free users, while Zoho and Free CRM are 10 and 100 respectively. For Free Contacts, Zoho leading with provide unlimited users, while FreeCRM giving 100.000 users for free, followed by Capsule with only 250 users. For Free Storage, Zoho again into the lead with unlimited quota, also in Free Support, Zoho providing full service, which other competitors can not provide. Last but not least, for the price. Capsule and Zoho tariffing 12 $ if you upgrade into pro member, While Free CRM costs 24,95 $ /user/mo.

References

[1]        Anonym []. Capsule CRM .[Online]. Available : https://www.capsulecrm.com. [Feb 28,2016]

[2]        Anonym []. Free CRM .[Online]. Available : https://www.freecrm.com/index.html. [Feb 28,2016]

[3]        Anonym []. Zoho .[Online]. Available : https://www.zoho.com. [Feb 28,2016]

[4]        Nesbitt, Scott[2016]. Top 6 open source CRM Tools for 2016. [Online]. Available: https://opensource.com/business/16/2/top-6-open-source-crm-tools-2016.[Feb 28,2016]

[5]        Wood,Cara [2015]. The 10 Best Free and Open Source CRM Software Solution.[Online]. Available : http://blog.capterra.com/free-and-open-source-crm/. [Feb 28,2016]

Created by : 

Moch. Bambang Sulistio (1406649271)

Faculty of Computer Science

University of Indonesia

Depok, Indonesia

moch.bambang@ui.ac.id

Ahmad Bairuni Hasibuan (1406648981)

Faculty of Computer Science

University of Indonesia

Depok, Indonesia

Ahmad.bairuni@ui.ac.id

Ranking: 5