Q-Industries, a Web site and business application developer, has implemented a CRM system for Odell, Simms & Associates combining "the best of an open-source CRM platform with the insight provided by social network analysis," company officials say.

 

By consolidating several disparate contact systems into SugarCRM and applying principles of social network analysis, Odell, Simms & Associates, a fundraising and economic development firm, hopes to be able to map and identify webs of relationships and how they connect. This view of relationships "often goes unseen in conventional CRM systems," Q-Industries officials explain.

 

The firm uses its executive database to raise funds for various causes, and to attract businesses to development zones around the world. In an industry that relies on access and influence, the social network analysis tool allows Odell, Simms & Associates to graphically chart how individuals and organizations are connected based on shared or common characteristics, even several degrees removed from each other.

 

Network maps, using nodes and links, illustrate the type and strength of relationships based on contacts' activities, affiliations, board memberships, hobbies, schools, and other defined traits.

 

Using SugarCRM, Q-Industries mapped and migrated Odell, Simms & Associates' multiple databases into a single system, consolidating thousands of contacts residing in ACT, Goldmine, and two internally developed contact management databases.

 

Last week Verio, a vendor of business products online, including hosting, applications and managed services, launched its Verio Business Solutions suite. The on-demand software offerings allow companies to use business-level applications for communications, productivity, security and customer relationship management needs.

The suite offers access to SugarCRM Professional, an open source customer relationship management (CRM) product with flexibility for customization, adaptable to a range of business models.

 

Verio Business Solutions are designed to help small and mid-market enterprises "overcome the time and cost barriers to efficiently manage business applications and technology products in-house, and improve their business, sales and technical operations," according to company officials.

SugarCRM, a provider of commercial open source customer relationship management (CRM) software, recently announced that Softbank Technology has signed an agreement to distribute Sugar solutions -- get it? -- in Japan. The new partnership will service a broad range of customer needs by offering ASP services that use Sugar.