vtiger

[tareef]

Hello,

First let me say great job with the start of the Customer portal, it is much needed in my eyes.

I have a few request/changes I would like to see to the module.

1. Ability to create a username and password under Contacts and/or account instead of user management and restrict portal users from login into VTiger CRM. To me it would seem better that way, easier to manage and more secure, I wouldn't create a user account for a customer in this setup.

2. Give the user the ability to update/change oun information, including password.

3. Integration with Mambo =) or at least ability to have automatic lead generation from website, Meaning have the ability to create a lead through inquiries from website.

Thanks,
Tareef[/google]

[Sai]

Dear Tareef,

Thanks for giving vtiger Customer Portal a try. I really appreciate your quick feedback.

Quote: 1. Ability to create a username and password under Contacts and/or account instead of user management and restrict portal users from login into VTiger CRM. To me it would seem better that way, easier to manage and more secure, I wouldn't create a user account for a customer in this setup.

I fully agree with you. We are planning to have a Portal Users management feature. This feature is in conceptual stage. As you mentioned, Accounts/Contacts are Portal Users. But all the Accounts/Contacts may not opt for Support Agreements with vendors. We can have an option to create/convert accounts/contacts to portal users extending the User management functions in vtiger CRM. We may need to identify the best possible way to implement this feature. Please share your thoughts.

Quote: 2. Give the user the ability to update/change oun information, including password.

Further we can also provide an option, even though portal user has the ability to change their information, in the Back end, vtiger CRM administrator must have the ability to manage all the portal users.

3. Integration with Mambo =) or at least ability to have automatic lead generation from website, Meaning have the ability to create a lead through inquiries from website.

I agree with you, integrating Customer Portal-related features with Content Management System (CMS) packages, such as XOOPS, Mambo, PHPNuke, PHPWebsite, and others is a good idea. As of now, our plans are first develop a standalone Customer Portal package, so that it can be deployed in any type of Websites (static HTML or PHP based). In future we may create Add-ons for various popular CMS packages using the same code base with few changes.

Please feel free to post all your suggestion.

Thanks and Regards,
Gopal

[tareef]

Quote: I fully agree with you. We are planning to have a Portal Users management feature. This feature is in conceptual stage. As you mentioned, Accounts/Contacts are Portal Users. But all the Accounts/Contacts may not opt for Support Agreements with vendors. We can have an option to create/convert accounts/contacts to portal users extending the User management functions in vtiger CRM. We may need to identify the best possible way to implement this feature. Please share your thoughts.

Thank you for your reply. I think if you just add a check-box, or area for all contacts/accounts, that can be turned on or off instead of having to convert to a seperate module. Or have a services section, maybe part of inventory management, that can choose the companies/contacts that have access.

Thanks,
Tareef

[peterd]

Hi,
When SugarCRM created their product, they actually built it ontop of the Mambo architecture, so in fact, porting the CRM abck into Mambo would presumably be easier than starting from scratch.

Also, it gives access to all the Mambo features without having to build yet another portal.

My opinions only.

Otherwise, I think this is an excellent CRM with a solid approach. Impressive!
Thanks for all the hard work,
Peter

[tigerincanada]

I think the vTiger approach is better.

I've looked at the Sugar code with a view to untangling it from Mambo so I could use it in my own system. Not a chance... which is what brought me over here.

[beach_defender]

I woul be interested in being part of a CMS integration, particularly with Xoops as I already have a few installs of Xoops around and have ported one of our applications to it as well.

If anyone has any experience or advice please let me know.

I will try to post results regualarly, but I'm more than happy to participate in discussions, though I'm sure it should be some other forum.

BTM About to install and play with Customer Portal.