Open Source CRM Systems for SMEs

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are very common in large companies. However, CRMsystems are not very common in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Most SMEs do not implementCRM systems due to several reasons, such as lack of knowledge about CRM or lack of financial resourcesto implement CRM systems. SMEs have to start implementing Information Systems (IS) technology intotheir business operations in order to improve business values and gain more competitive advantage overrivals. CRM system has the potential to help improve the business value and competitive capabilities ofSMEs. Given the high fixed costs of normal activity of companies, we intend to promote free and viablesolutions for small and medium businesses. In this paper, we explain the reasons why SMEs do notimplement CRM system and the benefits of using open source CRM system in SMEs. We also describe thefunctionalities of top open source CRM systems, examining the applicability of these tools in fitting theneeds of SMEs.