REST

CRM data migrations for Enterprises

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When implementing a CRM system for an established Enterprise organisation, there are many systems to gather data from, to be able to provide a comprehensive customer view to the end-users of the software.

The 360 degrees customer view is normally obtained by combining real-time integrations with external systems (such as accounting software, ERP, recommendation engines etc.) with an extensive process of data migration including data mapping, data scrubbing, manipulation and import from existing systems that will eventually be decommissioned.

Today I will focus specifically on the subject of performing a sizeable initial data load from a system to Sugar’s CRM system.

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Automated REST API testing with Chakram

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Every business nowadays relies on integrations through REST APIs. It can actually be very costly to not realise when your integrations stop working due to an undetected API issue. Might those API be internally developed and maintained or external API totally out of your control (eg: a bespoke company facing knowledge sharing system, a special dashboard your executives require to monitor daily, your cloud ERP, CRM and accounting software etc.).

When building any software project and its integrations, it is essential to know that the various components of the application can safely rely on fully tested and working back-end APIs. This is especially true when the components might change and quickly evolve over time. The solution to this problem is pretty simple: you should make sure your API’s business logic has fully automated regression testing, so that you know what can break, before every new release.

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Arduino and SugarCRM 7 – Do we have un-handled support tickets?

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Following up on my previous post about connecting an Arduino to internet with an Ethernet module, I wanted to build a quick solution to notify the support team about un-handled customer issues on the CRM system.

Arduino Sugar7 Case counter
Arduino Sugar7 Case counter

The objective is to connect via the REST API to SugarCRM and give an immediate feedback to the team using an Arduino. The output can be anything; from an awesome smoke machine, to a rotating light, a small set of LEDs, a LCD display, an audio alarm, whatever really. In this specific case it will be a set of 5 LED’s and a buzzer.

This practical example shows how to bring together Arduino micro-controllers, basic electronic skills and software web technologies. The result creates a physical device that gives real time feedback for software users about something that needs immediate attention.

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CRM, SugarCRM and a RESTful integration

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At InsightfulCRM I have been involved with SugarCRM projects of various sizes for quite few years, and I was recently asked to present at the Sydney PHP Meetup group about SugarCRM and REST integration.

Let me share the presentation I prepared for the Meetup on my blog as well:


To give you an overview, the presentation starts with an introduction about CRM and why businesses that do not have a CRM strategy should definitely consider implementing one.

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