I am considering starting a business to host cloud based SuiteCRM installs. I know that Sales Agility has this but I’m wondering how it would be received in the community and I guess what the demand for such a thing might be. I am also wondering if there is anything with the license (which I could post in the licensing area) that would prevent me from offering hosted SuiteCRM?
Our plan is to also offer custom modules (at a price) to expand the functionality of the product. For example we have a service company module that we have already (used internally) that we plan to redesign from the ground up and offer as a paid add-on.
I don’t think there’s anything in the license specifically about hosting and selling hosting services. As long as you keep the basic, generic requirements the license has.
I am not sure it is good business, it depends on your price, i guess But it’s probably hard to compete because hosting is not a stumbling block with SuiteCRM. People can host in many different ways, on many different places, including self-hosting, old-style shared hostings, new-style virtualized clouds, etc. There are many options for all price ranges. Maybe you can try differentiating yourself based on the support services, I don’t know.
I’m thinking our target market would be for the users that just want to use the system - non-technical people that don’t know or want to know about installing / configuring. And yes, we are planning to offer support as we gain more knowledge about how the software works internally. The plan I have for our system is a fully automated deployment that can have a user up and running in around 5 minutes. Price point will be around $10/user/mo minimum 5 users.
I notice that a lot of hosting out there is very basic as in here you go here is a server - go ahead and set up whatever you want on it (like a VPS) where we are specifically configuring SuiteCRM with very limited back end access for the user.
I am trying to get an idea of what the market is for this type of thing so this feedback is helpful - thank you.
We are also planning on offering administrative type services where we would manage users/permissions and also do simple customizations but some of that is still up in the air.
Additionally when we are creating custom modules that is a natural place to host them.
The Common users who don’t know about Hostings and Configuration usually tend to come on Forums, but as they say, first impression is the last impression, the users who are not able to setup/install CRM on the first place would probably turn away to see other options (imo)
SuiteCRM installation/setup usually face different hurdles due to different Hosting Providers like file permissions issues, PHP version, IMAP etc. Most Frequent problem is the Emails Setup on Godaddy server.
Offering Out of Box ready to Use and update of core files with new releases and Offering Initial setup to clients with fraction of charges added to Hosting Fee would be definitely peace of mind for small businesses and for individual Sales & marketing folks.
Just for information in this thread, SalesAgility recently renewed the Suite On Demand offer and made it more attractive (unlimited users, better backup options, etc).
But it’s probably hard to compete because hosting is not a stumbling block with SuiteCRM. People can host in many different ways, on many different places, including self-hosting, old-style shared hostings, new-style virtualized clouds, etc. There are many options for all price ranges. Maybe you can try differentiating yourself based on the support services, I don’t know.