At my previous employer we did not have a very good record of existing clients, domains, and their hosting packages. We also did not really have a solid hosting platform, no disaster recovery, or solid backups. We were very new and very fresh and very, very reactive. Then a terrible thing happened with our hosting, and with no legit recovery system we were forced to migrate dozens of websites by hand. Seeing an opportunity to not only improve our backup/recovery process, but to develop a very solid database of clients, domains, and hosting packages, we quickly threw together a MySQL database and interface to store the information. This system became the backbone of the company, evolving into a domain expiration reporting tool, automatic web reports generation tool, client management with call/email/issue logging, several misc handy utilities, daily email reports, all neatly tied into the companies Exchange server for user authentication. Needless to say, the code was a mess, but it did it’s job.
I have since left that company, but the need for such a tool has been stronger than ever. I have looked for an alternative to the custom application, but most 3rd party applications are extremely generic, or are extremely bloated with more features than I would ever need. My current employer uses SugarCRM, highly customized to manage our contacts, accounts, and sales leads. We use it for its simple project management too, but it is severely lacking. SugarCRM is a nice system, but it is not what I am looking for. There are certain things I want that it simply does not provide. Daily email reports about expiring domains and hosting for one. Single click access to add notes to a contact, company, or task. A tagging system. I then started looking at 37Signals, specifically their HighRise and BaseCamp packages. This was very, very close to what I was looking for. Easy to use, no clutter, just meat and potatoes. The only issue I have is that it’s hosted, and costs monthly, and it too, lacked certain specifics that I wanted/needed.
There are few other systems that are not worth mentioning, regardless, the point is that I knew what I wanted, and knew that it was very specific and tied to my work-flow No 3rd party application could fulfill my needs.
I have since started development of my own mutant hybrid CRM/Business Management tool. I have the experience of working in a creative industry, I know what I need to help me work faster and more efficiently, and I have the skill-set to implement it. I need a tool custom tailored for me and how I work. I chose CakePHP as the framework. RoR crossed my mind, but I selected CakePHP since I know it, use it, and am comfortable with it. The database is well designed, although it is still seeing some revision.
At this point the app is usable, and I do use it. The core features at this point are multiple users, a robust contact manager, tagging system, task management, document management, logging system. A few minor systems are a domain/hosting management system and companies. Companies are just a way to group contacts together, but it does provide a good overall for all contacts, you can view all notes, docs, etc, for a group. Everything is very easy to find, and very easy to use.
My plans for the next few months is to introduce some project management features, although I might just take advantage of BaseCamps API and hook it into my CRM. I would also like to include more sales features, such as estimating and prospecting tools. There will also be a few of the tools I had created for the prototype system that will make it back into this one.
Overall I am very pleased the application. It is leaps and bounds over the prototype in terms of usefulness and flexibility, and has made my life so much easier. I have considered releasing it into the wild at some point, but really, it is rather specific and would only appeal to, maybe, other web developers wearing 80 different hats.
Edit:
Screenshot of the dev app (this is not the version I am using, its just development)
Dashboard:
Viewing a Contact:
