Zurmo Open Source CRM / Zurmo Open Source CRM Blog: Recent posts

If you learned what Typhoid is by playing Oregon Trail, you will probably like Zurmo. If you didn’t, you probably will still like Zurmo anyway.

No, it’s not like playing a video game. No, it doesn’t replace the classic sales funnel. It enhances the experience by employing gaming mechanics so that users are engaged.

Let’s be realistic about something. The so called next generation has widely different expectations when it comes to “user experience”. Actually that idea applied to business applications didn’t even really exist when CRM systems as we know them today were created. ... read more

Today we are proud to announce the release of Zurmo 1.6.0. Nothing too crazy (if you want to see crazy, check out the features we just added in 1.5 last week), but a few little things that will help you save time while using the system. Our primary goal remains to make CRM easier to use and more natural.

Record Cloning

This feature is especially useful in scenarios where a new record needs to be created that is very similar to an existing record. Let's look at an example.Remember that during a typical sales cycle, a lead converts to a Contact when more meaningful engagement is on the horizon. Contacts are associated with Accounts. Generally, an Account will eventually have multiple Contacts. Let's look at the screenshot below and imagine we are negotiating a deal with an IT Director, Betty. Betty introduces us to her boss, Sardi, who is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Betty and Sardi share much of the same information. Rather than take the time to tediously enter in Sardi's information, I can simply "Clone" Betty. When I press the "Clone" button under options, a new Edit View appears with each field populated with Betty's information. All I have to do is change the differentiating details like name, title, etc. Everything else, like Account, address, fax number, website, etc., remains the same.... read more

Over the past couple of weeks we have been posting about Zurmo 1.5. The release is so significant that it can be quite daunting to understand everything it entails. We thought it would be helpful to summarize the highlights in a single post:

1) Advanced Reporting

Create Reports from Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Meetings, Notes, Opportunities, or Tasks. Report types include Matrix, Rows and Columns, and Summation. A Report Wizard guides users through the process of creating reports that they can save and generate as needed.... read more

It has happened. We have completed our powerful Reporting tool and added it into version 1.5.

Users can now create reports in Zurmo based on virtually any CRM data stemming from Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Meetings, Notes, Opportunities, or Tasks. Filters are simply dragged and dropped to create a report structure. Custom reports can be saved, shared with other users, and generated on demand.

Use Case Example: A Marketing Manager would like to closely gauge the ongoing progress of a campaign targeting healthcare companies in Chicago. He creates a report based on opportunities that have “Closed Won” for Accounts located in the specified region. He selects “Insurance” as the filtered industry. He includes the campaign in question and sets other parameters including dates, amounts, etc. He runs the report on a regular basis to ensure sufficient Return on Investment is being achieved through the campaign. Now he has a clear visualization of sales fluctuations based on the criteria he has selected, and can tweak his campaign as needed.... read more

Today is a landmark day in the history of Zurmo. With the release of version 1.5, Zurmo has reached a major milestone: bringing Enterprise CRM functionality to the open source community.

Features like reporting, workflow, and mobile are usually only available in paid versions. We set out on a mission 2.5 years ago to bring a robust CRM application that anyone in the world can freely use. Today marks a pivotal day in accomplishing our mission.... read more

I consider myself a minimalist.  We added a button in the bottom right now on the application that lets you toggle between mobile and desktop mode.  This was really put here for development purposes primarily since if you are on a mobile device it would detect that mode automatically.  I find myself using the mobile mode even on my desktop and I really enjoy it.  It is even more minimalist than the application itself.  It will be interesting to see how many other people use the application on their desktop in mobile mode.... read more

Amit Ashckenazi is a modest man. He does not like to be in the limelight. When we created the "about us" page for Zurmo.com, we organized our team alphabetically. Naturally, Amit's name is first on the list. He didn't like that very much. And unfortunately, as our top designer, he had the power to change it. He put his name at the bottom of the list and took out half the biography we had written about him. We fought his modesty and put him back up where his name belongs. Knowing all this about Amit, do you think he'll be thrilled that there is a blog post that begins with him as the subject?... read more

Before the 1.5 release, much of the Zurmo development plan has been directed towards sales force automation. Continuing down our roadmap, we have included more Marketing automation.  Marketing lists are one of these recent additions. They are found in our new Marketing section, where users can also manage email templates.

Why would you ever need to create an email list? If you work in Marketing, you'll know the answer. Marketing is all about campaigns. Campaigns are all about segmentation. And segmentation is all about lists.... read more

Often when we talk about a new CRM feature it is best to do so within the context of use case. To explain why we have added email templates to Zurmo’s latest 1.5 release, let’s consider a hypothetical scenario involving a sales rep (we’ll call him Ned) who works for a scuba diving certification school (let’s call it No Bends Scuba School) on a small Caribbean island.

It might sound kind of boring but, Ned’s job is to answer the sales phone at the school. He’s not complaining though because he is training to be an instructor himself and answering the phone is getting him ramped on the kinds of questions students ask.... read more

These phrases are kind of becoming cliches around here in Zurmoland: "Less is more". "Keep the User Interface (UI) intuitive." "No excess clutter." From day one, simplicity has been a big part of what we're all about. Keep the application clean and people will be more likely to use it.

We have heard it countless times from our forgiving and loyal early adopters. But let's face it. It is a lot easier to keep a house uncluttered when you have nothing in it but a bed, a sofa, and a couple of chairs. But what happens when you need to use the kitchen and you don't have any silverware? What happens when you want to pick up something to read, but your bookshelves are empty?... read more

Who would have thought it would be possible to translate Zurmo into Swahili? Before the language tool was built by Zurmo community evangelist Sergey Fayngold, Swahili was definitely not on our radar screens.

A couple of months ago we announced a new tool that makes the language translation process much more collaborative. The tool, which is powered by a Drupal l10n server, integrates with the Zurmo.org Community Forums, where members can contribute within teams corresponding to specific language translations. Suggestions are actively checked and moderated by other team members.... read more

In our 1.0 release we added new tools to help people collaborate and communicate within Zurmo. Two of these additions were Social Conversations and Missions.

I’ll start with this post by talking a little about Social Conversations.

Ever since the end of last year, our Zurmo team has been using Social Conversations in lieu of email for internal communication. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t take some getting used to at first. I can’t speak for everyone, but personally it took several “compose new email” clicks in Outlook before I remembered that the email I was sending to my colleagues could be dealt with in our system. Would Alexander Graham Bell’s people communicate with one another by telegram or would they pick up the shiny new phones sitting in front of them?... read more

Hi From Zurmo

We set out to build a full reporting tool and workflow engine for Zurmo on December 1st.  My personal goal was to build those 2 things in 4 months.  Well it has been 5 months, but now they are both complete.  These are the 2 big pieces of functionality that take Zurmo to the next level.

The post Reporting and Workflow complete appeared first on Zurmo.... read more

Workflow automation is a key part of any CRM. It makes sure nothing slips through the cracks.
That's important. That's a big reason why we automate processes in the first place.

Imagine Nancy is a sales rep. She's doing well and closing a lot of Opportunities. So much so in fact, that she can't keep track of them. Nancy can set up a workflow rule to remind her to follow up on any given Opportunity one week after she's created it. Smart, right?... read more

With the 1.5 release (http://zurmo.org/roadmap) within arm's length, the Zurmo Reporting Engine has taken shape and nears completion.

Here is an example of an Opportunity Summation Report:

 

The post Zurmo's Reporting Engine Nears Completion appeared first on Zurmo.... read more

We're proud of our developers. They work their tails off. And as with the two dozen or so releases they've shipped over the past couple of years, they never cease to amaze us. So once again, we report on a successful release that brings Zurmo closer to being even more awesome than it was before.

1.1.0 includes the following:

- LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. This links Zurmo to an organization's central authentication service, meaning users only need one user/pass to access multiple systems. ... read more

We are excited to announce that Zurmo has been added to Softaculous, the leading Auto Installer. This allows a user to install Zurmo in one step and makes it easy for anyone to start using the application immediately. The Softaculous Auto Installer easily integrates into leading Control Panels like cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, InterWorx, H-Sphere.

It's all about making installation easy and having users spend time working with the application, not spinning their wheels on the install process. With Softaculous, users have a solid way to get Zurmo up and running quickly and easily. It is an honor to be part of the many great scripts that Softaculous offers.... read more

We are proud to announce that Zurmo is now part of the BitNami Library. Zurmo can be downloaded easily and has ready to run native installers for Windows, OS X and Linux, virtual machines and Windows Azure & Amazon EC2 cloud images.

We are excited to be added to the BitNami family as this greatly simplifies installation, and the stacks include a pre-configured version of Zurmo with all of its required dependencies.... read more

Zurmo recently partnered with Sooptoo, a Netherlands based open source CRM services company. Sooptoo will become Zurmo's lead partner for reselling and providing professional services to Dutch companies.

With the upcoming launch of Zurmo's commercial version, service companies like Sooptoo are needed to help reach customers in geograhpies Zurmo would not normally be able to. Sooptoo has proven its open source CRM experience by implementing projects in the healthcare, government, and industrial industries. By partnering with Sooptoo, Zurmo is in a strong position to grow its global expansion.... read more

It is with great joy to announce the new language translation system. For months, one of our contributors (Sergey Fayngold) has been setting up the system so that anyone can easily translate Zurmo labels into their native language. If you would like to help, please see the instructions on our Forums:
http://zurmo.org/forums/index.php?/topic/680-language-contribution-process/

The post Zurmo Translation Process appeared first on Zurmo.... read more

Open Source is about a community of people working together who share a common ethos. Occasionally, certain people in the community demonstrate remarkable enthusiasm for the project. We like to call these people Evangelists.

Below is a list (in no particular order) of folks we'd like to highlight in appreciation for their recent efforts to help make Zurmo great. This list is by no means static - we add to it whenever someone has gone above and beyond to help the Zurmo Project. If you consider yourself a Zurmo Evangelist and would like to be recognized accordingly, or if there is anyone you'd like to nominate, let us know.... read more

Zurmo is listed this week on the homepage of Sourceforge as a featured project: https://sourceforge.net/. It's an honor to be recognized by the #1 resource for open source software development and distribution.

The post Zurmo Featured on Sourceforge appeared first on Zurmo.

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