Lately I've been doing a bit of freelance consulting, mainly system troubleshooting, configuration, installation, etc.

Does anyone have any experience with CRM-like software for consultants? Realistically, all I'm looking for is something PHP/MySQL-based to track time spent on calls, on site, programming, track copies of emails, etc. - essentially establish a customer history and history of time spent.

Thanks for any suggestions.
-J

I've been usign SugarCRM and been moderately happy with it. The time tracking has been a little weak, but there are quite a few add-ons that might meet your needs better than the base system. I also haven't played with the newest version (which is GPLv3 licensed) and there may be some improvements in time tracking.

My biggest issue with Sugar has been the complete lack of support for .ics based calendars like iCal or Sunbird. Also, I had a real problem with third party add-ons being broken by the Sugar updates. Supposedly they've re-done the way addons interact with the core system so that may have been solved.

Has anyone installed Hipergate CRM. It has quite a few nice features, but before I make the commitment I want to know how bug-free it is.

They are working on version 5, and I have helped them with translation, but the help has not been reciprocated, leading me to suggest that they are a very small developer group.

Regards

Mr. Leslie
Montreal Quebec, Canada