Table of Contents
Vtiger CRM system is a solution for anything and everything related to Customers. And also all activities associated with business Relationships and Managements. It is a bunch of forethought about organizational techniques. Moreover about measures, challenges, resolution, documentation and review. In this article, you will identify how Vtiger CRM Delivers Free Open Source CRM Solutions To Boost Your Business Conditions.
Customer Relationship Management software developed with a well-built customer-centric approach. Thus meeting the most common conflicts. Open source CRM is a more frontward perspective of the developers. It allows another person to upgrade and change the current design. CRM system is also known as a CRM tool, CRM software or web apps. Identify your business dealing, complications and demands firstly. It helps to adapt your business successfully into a CRM system.
What is Vtiger CRM?
Vtiger is an Open Source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) . PHP is its scripting language and MySQL is the database. This technical architecture help business to grow sales. Meanwhile, increase ROI with the right marketing strategy and deliver outstanding customer service.
Vtiger is a branch out of SugarCRM created in 2004. Established during SugarCRM started to stop open source code for their commercial profit. Released primarily under SugarCRM Public Licence (SPL) under the ‘Honest Open Source’ label. Vtiger never gave up its degree of serving the industry with no dual versioning. And it still remains to be a completely open source CRM with nearly none of the SugarCRM code left.
The Technical Requirements of Vtiger CRM
There are different types of CRM requirements needed. They are technical requirements, functional requirements, and vendor requirements. The technical requirements include backups and data restoration. Further, high availability, data migration, data storage and sandbox. The technical components required for the Vtiger CRM are:
PHP 5.0.*, 7.0
PHP is a refined open source scripting language used to process data. It also has commercially hosted software packages. Customizing the Vtiger CRM is easier if you have little experience in PHP.
Apache 2.0.40, 2.1 and above
Apache is a default web server used in Vtiger CRM that allows hosting a website. It sends the page viewed on the screen and must have write access on the web folder. Vtiger also can be set up with other web servers.
MySQL 5.1.x and above or Maria DB
MySQL is a free open source relational database management system. You can use it to store, process and retrieve data. Customization becomes simple if you have little MySQL skill just like PHP.
Smarty
A PHP based web HTML templating engine or framework. It separates the application logic PHP from resulting screen. Thus, it display data like leads, contacts and accounts. Installing it along with Vtiger allows to create different views. It also creates layout and merging with the MySQL data layer.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is the applied colors and background image standard. It allows designing layout and styling. Changing the look and feel of Vtiger CRM is possible. Skilled CSS experience helps to make the ease of use more specific to your business.
The functional requirements of CRM are user role management. Furthermore, requirements are audit trail API integration and field level security. The vendor requirements of CRM are training and helping in the implementation.
Key Features of Vtiger CRM
Vtiger open source CRM consists of a wide range of significant features. They are lead management, sales force automation and so on.
Sales and Marketing
The major terms used in this core feature are lead, potential, contact and account. A lead is a person or entity who showed interest in your service or product. A Potential is a lead, who has shown interest. Create an account for your customer or a prospective potential. Contact is a person connected to that account.
The most integral part of this feature is multi-channel account and lead management. Your website captures leads after a conference or any other mode. Here you can track those leads until they become an opportunity and make a sale. Custom filters help to view the particular segments in your lead pool. It also includes location, revenue, sales stage, etc,. Place a secure web lead form in your website easily. And allow new leads directly into Vtiger CRM. Incorporating a product-based selling process is simple in your Vtiger CRM. You have to indicate your lead’s interesting product. At the lead stage, it is possible with integrated products. After identifying your potential lead click the Convert Lead link. This is to change your lead into Potential or Account.
Activity Management
It allows your team to manage their appointments and scheduling a new one. Your team also can assign different tasks on a shared calendar. View your appointments on a calendar view or in a list view as per your preference. Synchronization with Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird is possible by using the extension.
Customer Support & Service
Customer service and timely support are also vital reasons for a winning CRM pack. You can achieve it from following contributions:
Email Management
Finding all emails from one single client in Microsoft Outlook is difficult. You can’t find it unless you have created and moved it to a folder. Vtiger open source CRM allows you to send emails directly from the CRM system. The account or lead sections will store the details. Mail converter extension will do more than this. It scans the inbox and matching the recipient’s email. Then automatically add to your current leads /accounts.
Ticket Management
Customer questions or issues handled and resolved carefully make your business unbeaten. This feature comes with the trouble ticket module. It gives complete Call Centre or help-desk functionality. Another optional customer portal module makes your customer login. Then create support requests and view the status of the query.
Reporting
Default canned report is pre-configured generic analytics. A custom reporting tool is also available to give more classified data. The home page sometimes features a dashboard for showing data visualizations. Mostly it shows canned reports whereas you can customize by using PHP and MySQL.
Document Management
Vtiger Open Source CRM incorporates document management. It allows the access of creating own folders to upload and store any file types to users. The unified efforts of the sales team saved in document versioning. It allows them to attach documents while sending emails to customers.
There are bundles of other extended features available. They are building inventory, calendar and email integration. It adds more values to Vtiger CRM.
Create a CRM strategy for your Vtiger CRM
The heart of CRM success is developing a CRM strategy and adopting users in it. A research study states that nearly 40% of CRM implementations fail. It is due to a lack of user adoption and very unlikely CRM strategy. This can be a major responsibility depending on your company size. Vtiger CRM is scalable to the enterprise. The following principles guide you to develop a logical CRM strategy.
1. Build your Team on Vtiger CRM
The most important part of the CRM strategy is building the right team. Starting from the top level, team leaders are the key members. CRM implementation experienced project lead is beneficial rather than finding an external resource. The entire team will get motivated with their credibility. They also get an insight into using CRM. It helps the creation of the vision and stakeholders to agree upon projects. Every team member committed to ‘the vision’ of the CRM project. Vtiger CRM will finally become the solution to identify the business problem. Moreover they all work together.
2. Identify the business problem through Vtiger CRM
The team should work together carefully after CRM assembled. to solve any particular issue. A business board prepared for the adoption of a CRM. Board created along with its direct and indirect enhancement talent. Scope out Return On Investment (ROI) projections. It’s documented for a final project charter. The project charter is then converted into requirements. Later, it integrates into Vtiger CRM. CRM strategy located to marketing campaign management, customer service, etc,. Additionally, located for sales force management and automation and sales order management.
3. Determine the IT requirements for Vtiger CRM
A necessary part of IT requirements is being integrated. Find internal and external systems firstly. On which Vtiger CRM will have to integrate and make a detailed plan. Identify IT infrastructure and body where Vtiger CRM can fit. Otherwise use a hosting service.
4. Set Achievable Business Goals for Vtiger CRM to Give a Hand
Establish practical written project goals. Then make your team adhere to them on a schedule. Every team member takes responsibility for the assigned action items. Your Vtiger CRM team will do well with the synergy of your team and acceptance of answerable duties.
Deployment Phases of Vtiger CRM
Salespeople are always busy making sales in a profitable company. Overloading them with many things at short notice is not recommended. Prepare to initiate with different stages of Vtiger CRM. Do it from the calendar and contact management. Later move on to lead management and then to further stages of CRM. Follow this phased method until your written goals attained by your team.
Determine the grounds for implementing an open source CRM. Deciding before choosing and installing Vtiger helps to figure out your Strategy. The CRM strategy ensures the reason for implementing a CRM system. And also business expectations from the CRM, and the way of achieving it. Give attention to your CRM strategy and proper execution on the team. It makes your organization achieve CRM project Goals.
Finish Up
Vtiger open-source CRM would be a great choice for improving your business performance. It uses futuristic modules helping to stay updated with current market trends. It facilitates for maintaining generous synergy of your team. Identify the need for a CRM and plan an appropriate CRM Strategy first. It initiates your business to get full advantages of using Vtiger Open Source CRM. If you need any questions or enquiries, please write to us [email protected]
