SplendidCRM, formed in November 2005, is getting set to enter the increasingly crowded open-source CRM marketplace.
It released a second beta version of SplendidCRM 1.0, an application licensed, in part, under the SugarCRM Public License. It plans to offer this version -- give or take a few tweaks -- during Q1, the company's founder, Paul Rony, told CRM Buyer.
New features in Beta 2 include the ability to add custom fields and to modify each field layout to include them. Also new is a terminology manager 
that permits online editing of every label, as well as the importation of language packs originally written for SugarCRM.
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Splendid vs. Sugar
When it enters the commercial marketplace, SplendidCRM is likely to face SugarCRM as its primary competitor, Rony expects. The two applications share many of the same features; both offer an Outlook plug-in and the ability to add custom fields, for instance.
SplendidCRM differs in its approach, though, he said. "The key difference is that our features are database driven, while [SugarCRM] is driven out of text files that have to be edited."
SugarCRM was unable to respond in time for publication.
SplendidCRM also announced that it has become a Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) 
Certified Partner.
Open Source Splash
Open-source CRM is not an ideal implementation for just any company. A firm that wants an out-of-the-box application would not want to bother with open source .
However, it is well suited for companies that want a CRM application that is highly tailored from the ground up. For such companies, customizing a Siebel or an SAP (NYSE: SAP) system would be a great deal of trouble, but there were few alternatives until 2004.
SugarCRM is generally regarded as the open-source CRM market marker. When it launched in 2004, it made a bigger-than-usual splash, highlighting the availability and the offerings of vendors in this segment. In December 2005, SugarCRM rolled out Sugar Suite 4.0, the seventh release for SugarCRM over a 20-month period.
On-Demand Open Source
Other open-source CRM providers, including Anteil, Daffodil, Hipergate and Vtiger, have also built out their product and service offerings. Vtiger, for instance, introduced a subscription model for customer support in July.
Then there are such vendors as iRadeon, a provider of on-demand services for open-source business software, that have begun to offer related applications. IRadeon AppPortal, introduced on Wednesday, gives users integrated one-click access to multiple Web-based open-source business applications, including open-source CRM.
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