CRM API

I've been reading through the discussions (http://groups.drupal.org/node/91689, http://groups.drupal.org/node/92239 and http://groups.drupal.org/node/92294) and some of the framework coming in to place for how we should build a Drupal CRM. The conversation up to this point has been useful, but I think at this point we're delving a bit too much in the specifics. Questions of whether we should use Profile2 or if this should be a collection of modules are ones that are entirely dependent on how we want this CRM system to function. I want to step back for a second and take a 10,000 foot view of this issue and pose a couple questions.

I know joachim has presented Profile2 as a possible foundation for Drupal CRM, but he has also asked whether it will in fact satisfy the use cases.

I think this is an open question, and it is one we need to answer fairly soon. Maybe I've missed it, but I haven't seen any real discussion of this. Should we be building on Profile2? Is it in line with our goals?

I think a big part of the answer here will be based on questions of its flexibility and extensibility. I don't know what the answer here is myself, but I think it is one that we need to address.

It looks like there is a good start on the basic architecture for a Drupal-based CRM. I was in attendance at the CRM BOF in Copenhagen. There were a lot of ideas being tossed around there. I think it would be good to have a clear set of goals and definitions for what we are building.

What is our goal?

Today at our meeting I offered to coordinate development and management of documentation of the “DropCRM” project. The following list is what I have worked out as being my key goals for documentation.

In order to make this CRM project “not suck” from the get go it is vital that business use cases to be evaluated and considered and that documentation is a living process in order to make sure that we get a tool that people can use.

This means creating 4 key types of documentation.

Hello everyone,

I've posted this in the main Support forum http://drupal.org/node/429874, but I believe it'll fare better here:

one of my customer is using Parature for their support needs and is developping a new web site and store for their products. There needs to be some integration between the two, like SSO (single sign-on) and profile field synchronisation.

Did somone here go trought this? Is this something that could be done easily with Drupal/Parature APIs? Should we better attack the data directly, e.g. using an exported feed or even directly trough SQL?

A new group was proposed as below - rather than splitting efforts, let's broaden this group to cover Drupal-native CRM as well.

Drupal-Native CRM
Description: Designing and developing basic CRM functionality with pure Drupal (i.e. w/o Civi, Salesforce, Sugar, etc.)

And there we have it! The barebone skeleton of what could become a fabulous gizmo that takes all the different CRMs and provides consistent, drupal-like objects and interfaces for them.

One of the main ideas behind this module was to bring some consistency to how CRMs and drupal interact. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we picked a set of fieldnames that will remain consistent in drupal regardless of what cRM you are using.