CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

I'm not an official CiviCRM representative, but noticed you hadn't received a reply yet, so I'll chip in and give some information on what you're looking for. This is one person's perspective, so don't take it as the final word on matters. I would also encourage you to take the time to work through the website, as a lot of what you're seeking can be extracted from it.

1) Competitive environment: CiviCRM is one of many CRM solutions available. Each CRM caters to a specific audience. The audience CiviCRM focuses on is the not-for-profit world, including NGOs, charitable organizations, religious orgs, professional/trade associations, community groups, education institutions, etc. In this area, it has many commercial competitors offering web-based or desktop software with similar functionality.

CiviCRM is unique in that it is open source, and the software itself is available at no cost. This means two important things: it is more accessible to not-for-profits with limited budgets, including many smaller organizations that would simply not have the financial resources to purchase and implement other commercial solutions (though I would add that many large organizations have adopted CiviCRM as well). Secondly, it is highly customizable in that the source code is open, and thus can be modified/hacked/adapted/extended per the specific needs of the organization.

The "strategy" of the software is as described above: to provide a professional, functional, robust, affordable, open source CRM solution for not-for-profits.

The "position" could be considered in two ways: CiviCRM is the only open source CRM geared toward this audience (though there are other open source CRMs geared toward other audiences that could conceivably be used by a not-for-profit organization, depending on their structure and needs). As such, their "position" is that they are the only and best solution. In terms of the broader scope of potential solutions (open source and commercial), CiviCRM is rated very highly, according to a recent survey conducted by NTEN. Though it's difficult to firmly rank their position, I would say that they are well respected in the marketplace, and serve certain markets very effectively.

Technology is obviously critical to strategy, since the entire project is technology-driven.

2) Major suppliers to the project are the operating system and middleware providers whose tools and applications are used in the development of CiviCRM. This includes Linux, MySQL, PHP, Eclipse, Joomla, Drupal, and others. They benefit the project's competitive advantage in that those "building blocks" are also open source, freely available, and are common technologies accessible and available to developers and end users.

3) The core functionalities of CiviCRM are not radically different from competitors. Having used some other applications geared toward a similar market, one area where I think CiviCRM excels is in its built-in flexibility. It is structured in such a way that it can very easily be adapted to the specific needs of a diverse array of organizations. I don't think the core development team has really thought in terms of who their major competitors are. CiviCRM offers a unique solution -- and open source solution. While there are other alternative commercial products offering similar functionality, CiviCRM's place in the market is unique.

4) CiviCRM is free to download and install, as are the CMS platforms into which it can be integrated (Joomla and Drupal). However, it is an extensive product, with many configurations, and often requires the assistance of an experienced developer to setup and configure. The core development team, as I understand it, receives funding to advance the project in two ways: several large organizations using CiviCRM have sponsored the project development over the years; and the team obtains funding through consulting work, largely dealing with the implementation, configuration, and often customization of the software for the retaining organization. The CiviCRM team provides excellent customer support through the site forums. That support largely deals with troubleshooting/bug resolution, and assisting people with better understanding the functionality of the software (...how do I do...?). The team would charge for functionality and customization beyond the scope of the existing product (though they do assist with some level of minor customization via the forums).

5) I'm not really sure if the core team has any primary concerns or in the future. Because of it's unique position, it doesn't share the same concerns and competitive pressures of commercial solutions.


I hope this helps. Again -- this is not an "official" answer from the core development team, but one user's perspective on the existing software, environmental analysis, and general project development.

-Brian