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Open Source CRM Vendor Goes SubscriptionVTiger, an Indian open source CRM provider, offers a subscription model for small and medium-sized businesses for its product based on SugarCRM. By DAVID SIMS TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist VTiger, an Indian provider of enterprise-class open source CRM products has announced a subscription model for customer support. The offering is being pitched mainly to small and medium businesses "that need an alternate to expensive CRM solutions available in the market," according to vtiger officials. Annual support subscription pricing starts at $149 for a single user pack, $699 for a five-user pack, $1,299 for a ten-user pack, $2,999 for a 25-user pack, $4,995 for a 50-user pack, and $8,995 for a 100-user pack. Customers also have an option of a one-time remote installation fee of $250. But the software's free. It is, after all, open source. "The software itself is available for free to download and install, with no complex licensing schemes," says Mani, co-founder of vTiger. The support, however, is another matter. "Enterprises that adopt vtiger for their mission-critical needs now have the peace of mind from our guaranteed support services offered at very affordable prices. We provide the freedom of open source, with the guarantee of professional support," Mani added. VTiger describes its "mission" as being to "create affordable enterprise IT solutions in CRM, Groupware and other areas." According to ZDNet vTiger released the SugarCRM-based product vTiger 3.2 at the end of 2004. "The product is targeted at SMEs and includes various CRM modules such as lead management and security management. The security module allows administrators to define the roles of team members and to restrict access to the modules according to each user's role," ZDNet writes. VTiger's wholesale rebranding of SugarCRM as their own product has created "serious dissention within the Open Source ranks," according to the Casey Software blog. "It appears -- I have NOT done a code audit myself to confirm this -- that they have taken the entire source to SugarCRM and simply rebanded it with their own logos, stylesheet, copyright notices and call it 'vtiger CRM,'" the blogger writes. However, Christiaan Erasmus at LinuxToday writes "Recently vTiger took SugarCRM's source code, stripped the logos, added an installer and released it as vTiger CRM. I am not a lawyer but it appears to be legal to do this under the SugarCRM Public Licence (SPL), which is an adapted version of the Mozilla Public Licence. vTiger then went further to ensure that they adhere to the SPL by publicly stating that it is based on SugarCRM code and kept the copyright notices intact." ----- David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles by David Sims, please visit: http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100005&nm=David%20 Sims |