vTiger Open Source CRM Software Review

After having done with the popular open source Sugar CRM, we hit upon one of its competitor the open source CRM vTiger. This free software is feature rich and equipped to the demands of small and medium organizations. vTiger CRM has been designed to manage the wide range of CRM activities and Inventory Management.  The open source CRM software includes sales force automation, customer support & service, marketing automation, inventory management, multiple database support, security management, product customization, calendaring, E-mail integration, add-ons (Outlook Plug-in, Office Plug-in, Thunderbird Extension, Customer Self-service Portal, and Web Forms), and others. To analyze the vTiger lets take a look at its features.

Features

Customization and Configuration

• vTiger offers easy-to-use customization tools for the administrators. They can customize CRM according to the needs of the company.

• vTiger offers customizable themes that can be used to change the appearance of the interface

• Add new custom fields in the users interface forms as per organization

• The tab containing modules for most relevant sales process can be customized with drag & drop. The values in the dropdown fields can be specified according to the needs.

Sales force Automation

This is one of the crucial CRM function. With a comprehensive approach the vTiger SFA streamlines the sales operation to an admirable extent. The key modules of the CRM include lead management, opportunity management, account management, contact management, and activity management.

Marketing Automation

The marketing automation mainly features

Campaign management

It allows execution of mass mailing for the campaigns and customer data to track its effectiveness

E-mail marketing

It assists in managing the mailing list according to the priority of leads, accounts and contacts. The user can send mass E-mail campaigns for a selected mailing list.

Lead management

The user can import leads from external sources, such as Web downloads, trade shows, seminars, direct mail, and other types of campaigns. The leads from the website are directed to the vtiger CRM. It qualifies the leads according to the lead details.

Inventory Management

• vTiger integrates the Inventory Management functions with sales cycle management. It includes a wide range of functions like products, sales quotes, purchase orders,  price books, vendors, sales orders, and Invoices with CRM modules and much more. It’s functions include

• The user can create custom product fields according to the requirement of the organization.

• The product details can be exported to the spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel, Open Office or others.

• It’s easy to create the sales order and Invoice with a single click

• The user can create printer-friendly Invoices that can be delivered to the customer via email. Items can be automatically added to the invoice and it also updates the subtotal, taxes adjustments and calculates the grand total.

Order Management

The purchase order and sales order fields can be used according the requirements of organization.

Activity Management

It assists the management of daily tasks, streamlining the sales. The user can also add important customer-related emails to vTiger CRM for future reference.

Reports & Dashboards

vTiger provides an extensive sales pipeline analysis by stage as well as a monthly report. The reports also include the sales opportunity by lead source. The dashboard can be arranged according to time and opportunity stage.

Extended features

There are number of add-ons offers by the vtiger team and vtiger community. To add new functionality or integrate third party applications, vTiger CRM offers APIs. The CRM software includes several enhancements that assists in the creation of new modules and functionality. For additional functionality the software offers the vtiger customization services. vTiger can be integrated with a number of productivity add-ons such as the e-mail client, Outlook plug-in, Office plug-in, thunderbird extension, customer portal and RSS feed.

Pros

• The ease of use is the one the best things about vTiger.  It features an user-friendly interface that is easy to handle for the first timers.

• vTiger takes lesser loading time

• The Apache, MySQL, and PHP are integrated, and functionality are also available for both Windows and Linux operating systems.

• The vTiger CRM software offers several add-ons for Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla/Thunderbird, Microsoft Word, and Customer Portal. This is an  added advantage for end-users looking for better enterprise features.

• It’s a free open source software without any upfront investment

• The CRM software integrates the pre-sales and post-sales activities.

• vTiger offers a product customization that ensures better user experience

Cons

The installation is not smooth and involves some intricacies that tough for the first timers. It may require additional file changes to complete the version successfully.

Conclusion

vtiger CRM is a business ready software for small and medium enterprises. With further upgrades in new 5.x release, it seems a promising CRM software. For more you can always share your opinions on this CRM software.