Need to develop a custom CRM tool faster

Question

Coming straight to the point. I need to develop a CRM application which can have custom screens, our own database structure and faster development time. Apart from standard CRM modules there can be few industry specific modules. Many developers suggested to go for some CRM tools like vtiger. But I am not sure what level of customization these tools can provide. So here are my questions 1. Are these CRM tools extensible to new tailor made modules? 2. What level of screen design changes can be done? 3. If I use Joomla, someone suggested use Joomla and you can design your own custom modules and can be done quicker and faster, any idea?

Technology is no barring but will prefer asp.net tools.

Please suggest it fast as I am running out of time. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Thanks for all your input guys. I am developing it on my own from scratch using either Zend framework(php) or will go with asp .net. Yeh vTiger was a great option to start with but client didn't agree to anything. He want it to get it done from scratch. Anyways thanks a ton!

Answer 2

It really depends on which one you are talking about and what exactly you need. Basically any decent crm is going to let you design screens and make new data structures. If you stick to open source ones then you can customize even more. If you look at the Joomla Extensions Directory there are a number of good CRMs that are either native to Joomla, well integrated, or bridged. People have their favorites but it depends on what your business is or if it is non profit (most non profits seem to use either CiviCRM or the Salesforce integrations). Most of the commercial ones have good information and demos available. I can say that if you know what you are doing with civicrm you can customize anything as much as you want, but it's not exactly standard Joomla since they use Smarty templating.

Answer 3

You sound like you need to do some more project discovery, since requiring custom screens and 'own database structure' is really low-level requirements. I would suggest using a standard CRM system that allows for customization. There is a number of these, but if we stick to .NET-related CRM-systems any of these will probably work:

1) Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2) Vienna Advantage 3) JitBit

... and probably a lot of others.

I am not recommending any particular.

All of these systems require that you are familiar with CRM-related nomenclature, such as customer relations, lead/offer control etc. - but that is a requirement no matter what CRM you end up with (even a custom-developed one)

Joomla is by definition a CMS and not a CRM. You could potentially develop modules that will make any CMS into a sort of CRM-application, but that will definately not speed up the development time. Also, Joomla is not ASP.net, it is PHP.