Development of ERPNext CRM which is Comparable to ZOHO or Salesforce CRM by ERPNext Foundation

Hi,

We are under consideration for SHIFTING our CRM, all oppurtunities, leads etc to ZOHO CRM since the functionalities of the same are much better vis-a-vis ERPNext for CRM.

Examples:

  1. Emails are not populated under the LEAD or Customer for Quotations.
  2. Emails, comments or communications are not collapsible in timeline
  3. Email INBOX is possible in ERPNext but must say its next to Junk, we cannot have a threaded view as in ZOHO.
  4. Reminders of ZOHO are way better than ERPNext.
  5. Dashboards in ZOHO are one thing missing in ERPNext many have been asking for the same.

Now I know its like asking for a lot for but since I am a long time user of ERPNext, I have somehow developed a big affinity and a bias for ERPNext and I am now willing to sponsor some of the critical features for CRM in ERPNext.

Now instead of going to ZOHO CRM paid version which would cost us some amount I am willing to pool in the ZOHO fees for 1year so that we can use the CRM here on ERPNext.

There has been many users in community asking for some of the features and I would request the foundation to take up this as a request for CRM since SALES for any organisation is the most important thing and having a good CRM would definitely count towards having ERP as a good contender not just in the Opensource market but also in comparison with products like ZOHO or Salesforce.

Would love to get inputs of the community if the foundation can take up this as a BILLED development on our organisation, since I am not willing to leave erpnext for zoho.

cc: @Abhinav_Duggal

14 Likes

Are the 5 examples exhaustive for what you would consider critical towards making ERPNext a world class CRM?

1 Like

Well, I think its time erpnext sets the BAR high since I feel comparing it with ODOO is wrong if erpnext needs to become a world leader which I am sure it will.

Hence I had the comparison with the best in the class and to answer that the 5 examples are not exhaustive but yes they are critical indeed.

Since CRM would work only when it ensures that followup are good and that’s what good crms do which erpnext is lagging since a long time, I am ready to pool in the resources (money and time) if there is more demand we could all pool in for the foundation.

Honestly I am not an expert on CRM and hence the 5 examples are not what I think are the only things missing.

4 Likes

I Think this is a gerat step to have an idea to make erpnext better.
We have a customer, who knows salesforce - i suggested to use erpnext - but it is lack of funtionality … no chance to get an professional customer using crm of erpnext.
to become a world leadr, yes, there is much to do.

2 Likes

I’ve been looking at the CRM capabilities of ERPNext for quite a while. They are a little basic but workable but I would agree that some features and polish are needed to take it to the level of Zoho and Odoo etc.

There’s also been a few bugs that needed fixing with CRM and email handling that under my support contract with Frappe are getting fixed. For example vers 7 did not show the older sections of mails in conversations but this got broke and hasn’t been fixed yet. Frappe have done an excellent job this year with really fixing a high number of bugs and introducing some great new features in the whole of the application. But it’s so wide ranging that CRM doesn’t always get the attention that perhaps it’s requires and deserves.

I think we need to clearly demarcate some specific issues or new features and I hope that the company I work for may be able to contribute a little towards this work too.

I will dig out my list of bugs and features that I have and see if there is anything else significant that needs adding to your list. I think it’s also a case of being realistic about what’s achievable in a certain time frame too.

It’s also worth saying that I’m not sure currently how much CRM is used compared to traditional ERP type features such and Production Orders and Stock functions by the community as I’ve noticed and logged a number of email issues that I was surprised had not been noticed by others first, or in higher numbers. For example, if you received an email from someone with accentuated characters in their name in your inbox that the accents would get removed on saving as a Contact. As a system with so many international users I’m surprised that although fixed just now that no one else had commented on this.

But CRM is working better than it ever has been this year and it’s a great base from which develop further so I’m very hopeful of the future. :grin:

4 Likes

Some thoughts on enhancing CRM

  1. Calling integration so that cold calling & tracking can happen within CRM module
  2. Better Calendar linkage for Sales Person appointments & tracking
  3. Better integration with gmail using gmail API & ability to create Leads, contacts & opportunities from within an email.
  4. Org hierarchy to handle security eg: Sales Manager can see leads of all staff under him based on role but staff cannot see each other’s leads unless they share them. Maybe this is currently available in some form but not very intuitive.
  5. Addition of some bulk actions like Approval to doc types.
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we should start a bounty for this to be done

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I am ready to participate with a financial contribution, as I was also considering moving to Zoho CRM but would rather stay with ERPnext.

I’m willing to help too

Julian

We are willing to contribute too. We are currently using Freshsales.

Is there any progress on it?

I’m afraid that the number of responses you’ve got so far is a good indication of the progress made. :frowning_face:
There was also some discussion lately in this topic about the CRM progress

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Any update on this discussion findings issues ?

Hi, it would be nice to continue these discussions about CRM so that we can put together a bounty (many would support this development).

Regards

1 Like

Hi, i think this is a great idea how do we start the bounty.

1 Like