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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.
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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