ConcourseSuite CRM 6.0 Released

Posted by Matt Rajkowski on April 13, 2010, 8:30 AM EDT

Today we've released ConcourseSuite 6.0. The trial version is available now (direct download link) and with it comes our latest CRM for up to 5 users. We've completely changed the marketing module, and we've also updated all of the HTML to be compatible with the latest browsers. Version 6.0 now runs perfectly fine on Java 6 and Apache Tomcat 6 (although you could get 5.0 to work with some configuration). Under the hood we've further adopted Java Portlets and the Accounts details page is now a portal all by itself, which allows for some impressive customization.

One major shift in thinking was around permissions. There are still many granular permissions, but the default record sharing permissions result in easier sharing of CRM data among smaller groups of users.

We do not yet have the upgrade scripts from 5.0 and we need your feedback as to when/if we should work on them. Database support in 5.0 was upwards of 10 databases which we've discovered is more than what our customers need. What we've also discovered is that users want a stable and accurate CRM product. "If it's not broke, don't fix it." As such, we've refined many areas without many new features (although check out the new Account and Contact relationships!). We've also concentrated on using search index technology over database technology for better performing searches of contacts and accounts. As a result, this version only supports PostgreSQL, but again, could support other databases with your feedback.

Concursive is quite comfortable using CRM 6 to power our own internal CRM, and we're using it to power ConcourseConnect's Community Manager application, so don't hesitate to give it a try. We'll be responsive to any issues related specifically to the product (just post a ticket in the support forum under the Issues tab). I anticipate spending a few weeks improving the usability of the dashboards and some of the core modules, otherwise it's good to go.