A/P,A/R question

[Linas Vepstas]

On Tue, Nov 20, 2001 at 09:03:40AM -0500, Paul Lussier was heard to remark:
> 
> Isn't bugzilla a bug tracking tool?  Why would you use it as a CRM, 
> or is that actually one of it's features?

bugzilla would be a crappy crm tool. crm == 'customer relationship
management'.  crm tools are kind of like bug trackers except that
they keep a different kind of info.  But the 'user interface' is
essentially identical.   A properly designed crm tool can be configured
to work/act/think like a bug tracker, or like a to-do list manager,
or a wiki or a faq-o-matic or a purchasing manager.  They all have the
same basic abstract user interface, which is 'workflow'.   Every 
CRM demo I've seen has been a workflow engine under the covers,
where the programmers have written a detailed script for doing crm.
Some are painfully obvious: the screen layout is identical, only the
button labels have changed.


---------
Note also, some people in the industry use 'crm' to stand for a very
very different thing: spam.  Although then its called 'targeted email
marketing campaign', and 'crm' is the campaign manager. 

--linas


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