Open Source SplendidCRM Upgrade Offers Ajax, .Net 2.0

SplendidCRM Software has released a new version of its open source CRM solution that is based on SugarCRM and uses a Microsoft technology stack.

The new Version 1.4 incorporates .Net Version 2.0 Framework technologies, with features such as .Net 2.0’s Master Pages, Themes, Web Parts and the Ajax programming language.

Master Pages and Themes work together to simplify application development and allow for an unlimited number of page layouts to be predefined — users can select from a list of layouts that suit their personality.

Parts, Pages and Themes

With WebParts, users can define their personal view of SplendidCRM-generated Web pages, designating content regions to hide or move according to their needs.

The most recently-added technology, .Net 2.0 Ajax, employs a technique for updating Web pages without having to refresh the entire page. Also, SplendidCRM relies on Ajax technologies in its new Order Management system. The new Order Management system provides the ability to create quotes, orders and invoices.

“Of all the new features, the big one is Master Pages,” said Paul Rony, president of SplendidCRM. “It allows users to create a template that defines an entire site. And by encapsulating that master, you have so dramatically simplified your code. Prior to [Version] 1.4, you were limited to different themes. As developers, we can then spend more time working and solving our customer’s problems and less time building the UI framework.”

SplendidCRM’s Microsoft-centered development environment allows companies to leverage a variety of Microsoft tools, technologies and best practices. It adds capabilities that support a wide variety of business environments; SplendidCRM Professional, the premium version of the product, is internationalized to support worldwide time zones and localized to support virtually any language.

Open Source Benefits

Training costs are reduced because the source code is available and “you don’t have to teach people how to use the Microsoft technology. Just buy any of the books on .Net 2.0, or read through the hundreds of articles online. All of that knowledge applies,” explained Rony.

“We selected SplendidCRM because we needed a full-featured CRM/SFA system that allowed us to stay on our Microsoft ASP.NET platform and easily integrate with our member systems,” noted Margot Dorfman, Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce.

“SplendidCRM allows us to keep our whole system working together and allows us to use the information we have on our members intelligently, for a fraction of the cost of competing systems,” she added.

“This is not so much a CRM announcement as it is a technology announcement,” Denis Pombriant, principal with the Beagle Research Group, told CRM Buyer. “I look forward to learning more about what all this technology means for the CRM user.”

An evaluation version of SplendidCRM 1.4 is available on the firm’s Web site.

SplendidCRM’s license to system integrators includes two distribution methods: a runtime license, enabling integrators to sell the application via CD or download; and a hosted, on-demand license employing the Software as a Service (SaaS) model.