Reviews

Product review: CiviCRM

IT | Mark Walker | 23 Nov 2010

Mark Walker and Julie Harris run the rule over open source CRM package CiviCRM.

The review of customer relationship management (CRM) systems in the Spring issue of Civil Society IT highlighted the market leaders across various sizes and types of charities. Of those with a turnover below £1m, more than two-thirds were using either Access, Excel or bespoke solutions, which suggests that smaller charities are not able to afford the more sophisticated products.

What was perhaps a surprise was that CiviCRM, which is free and open source, didn’t have a large enough market share to be mentioned. An open source CRM that has been around for several years, it is free to use, has a strong user and developer community and latest versions can deliver a lot of core functionality out of the box. So, if the price is right, is it a serious contender as a CRM solution for smaller organisations?

As explained at http://www.civicrm.org/aboutcivicrm, CiviCRM grew up in the US to “meet the needs of advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups”. This includes contact, fundraising and eCRM systems to record and manage information about individuals and organisations, such as volunteers, activists, donors, employees, clients, vendors, etc. Its modular structure includes case management, online fundraising, donor management, online event registration, membership management, email newsletters and report generation.

Now adapted for UK

Peter Dunn is ICT champion for the North West and a database developer with ten years experience across a range of packages. He has worked on several projects using CiviCRM and often finds it on the shortlist when an online system is required. He thinks it offers a great deal of out-of-the-box potential, at a price that is obviously appealing.

“In terms of functionality it is a very valid option for small to medium-sized organisations. A lot of the US-centric flavour in the early versions has now been adapted for the UK and there are lots of examples of its use by all sorts of organisations across the country. Version 3.0 was a great step up and a consortium of organisations here in the North-West invested in development time to localise it for UK purposes and install it in a dozen locations over the past 12 months or so.”

The range of UK-based users continues to grow and a small but growing band of specialist developers now network actively and meet regularly to support its development. Michael McAndrew has been a leading light in the network for many years and organises a twice-yearly training course for developers in London every year.

“The UK is CiviCRM’s second largest community after the US, and UK-specific functionality continues to grow,” he says. “We’ve recently released support for gift aid and integration with mySociety’s Mapit API, which gives non-profits free access to all publicly available Ordnance Survey data.”

Not all positive

Despite the functionality of the underlying software, it’s not all positive. Peter Dunn reports that one or two of the early users in the North-West have subsequently moved onto other solutions. “One of them I spoke to recently had just switched to Microsoft Dynamics. I don’t think it is specifically anti- CiviCRM, it’s just that after getting used to a new system, many users realise they want something that works the way they do, rather than requiring them to re-engineer their work.

“Dynamics can integrate seamlessly with Office and especially with Outlook, and charity pricing through CTX can make it affordable if the organisation already has the right server hardware and software.”

This doesn’t mean that Dynamics is automatically a better out-of-the-box solution than CiviCRM, however. “Microsoft has promised a UK-specific version will available by the end of 2011,” comments Dunn.

“This promises to be based on local needs and easily configured, but until then it is a US-based product that needs a fair bit of configuration, probably using a Microsoft Gold Partner. So even though it may be more usable in some respects it probably won’t beat CiviCRM on price, especially if you factor in the new server which you would ideally run it on.”

Functional considerations

The modules available with CiviCRM include specialist tools for case management, managing donor activity, mass email mailings and reporting, reflecting the common uses of the system. The reporting tool offers CSV Export, the ability to share functions within a group of users and the ability to configure reports to be delivered to one or more recipients via email.

Configuration of most advanced features needs a degree of technical ability [eg ‘set and schedule a cron task’] but the interfaces are at least as clear and usable as the standard functions offered by similar products.

Any online-only solution may raise security and data protection concerns from staff and trustees and in this respect CiviCRM is no more or less vulnerable than any other online solution. It requires a secure hosting set-up from day one, thorough investigation of the back-up provided by the host and stringent management of permissions. Using the Drupal content management system rather than Joomla probably gives it the edge here as it has more sophisticated permissions and access controls.

As Peter Dunn observes, while the hosting requirements are not especially onerous it is not advisable to use bargain basement hosting deals. “As with any similar software someone knowledgeable needs to be on hand at the set up stage to set up backup procedures, configure security settings and handle upgrades.”

There are plenty of examples of people with a moderate level of IT skills tackling the set-up on their own – think of anyone who can use FTP – but most end-users will benefit from a Drupal-savvy web designer to create the front end and a database developer to add the final tweaks under the bonnet. And although Joomla is relatively user-friendly for an entry level web-designer, Drupal is a cut above Wordpress and Joomla in terms of complexity of set-up and configuration.

Development

This means that implementing a CiviCRM solution is probably best handled by a specialist, able to select the right set up and then offer the training and support needed to implement it successfully. But what is the marketplace like for CiviCRM developers?
 
“There are a number of suppliers to choose from, with more emerging as the software matures,” explains Dunn. “There is also a very active and committed community of users and developers and any request for help on the CiviCRM forums quickly generates a great response.

“Of course the appeal of an open source-based solution is that investment in solutions by one user will often benefit all users, which encourages collaboration such as the project in the North West. Assuming that most projects require similar investment in upfront design and build, there are savings in licensing costs and it is likely that Microsoft Gold Partners or in-house developers of proprietary suppliers will cost at least the same when it comes to bespoke updates and tweaks."

Oxford Community and Voluntary Action chose CiviCRM when its previous supplier pulled out of the market two years ago. Strategic partnerships manager Kate Hill says the charity is more than happy with its new system and that it is has benefited its website as well as its CRM functions. “We had to learn a few of its quirks as we went along but new staff now find it very easy to pick up and use, and we are told by our members that the website is much easier to navigate. As with any CRM project we could have put more time into planning the reports we require but overall we've been very pleased with it and would recommend it.”

Conclusions

In a crowded marketplace CiviCRM stands out as an open source tool that has now been adopted by a wide range of developers and end users, mainly in the US but increasingly in the UK. It has been designed specifically for the needs of the sector so it does not need to be re-purposed from a typical business usage, and its active and committed developer community is a great example of how open source communities can nurture a great collaborative environment.

However, like any solution that presents itself as working out of the box there are certain caveats to bear in mind when evaluating it and it is by no means an automatic choice when compared to the many other options available. It is also not a tool that you can just download and get started. It ideally requires a Joomla or Drupal-savvy developer with experience of installations that match the specific needs of each, but these skills are increasingly common and can prove more affordable than other options.

Overall it is clear that is emerging as a serious product with functionality that will meet a lot of users needs at a reasonable price, and its growing adoption could see it appear in the middle reaches of the CRM surveys in the next few years.

Mark Walker and Julie Harris are government-funded third sector IT champions

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