CRM with no money down: open source CRM vendors are trying to transform the industry.(CRM TRENDS AND NEWS ANALYSIS)(Customer relationship management )

CRM Magazine, January, 2005 by Compton, Jason

Open source may finally be arriving on the CRM scene. While still a minority in the market, a growing number of companies are choosing to provide CRM software free of up-front expense. As companies like Red Hat have demonstrated, free software can work for customers and make money. "The idea is that enough of CRM capabilities are becoming commoditized, so why not give those functions away for free and make money off services, such as customization, support, documentation, and upgrades," says Wendy Close, a Gartner research director.

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To date, open source CRM developers have yet to make major breakthroughs in the market, opting instead to quietly improve their products and cheerily serve up free downloads. "It's hard to be an open...