Cream 1.0 Released
Campware is pleased to announce the 1.0 release of Cream, a free and
open-source customer relationship management (CRM) system designed
specifically to meet the needs of media organizations.
Cream is designed to meet the unique demands publishers have, including
features that allow subscription management, support for multiple
products (print subscriptions, advertising, online subscriptions,
books, etc.), customer communications (both incoming and outgoing), and
easy-to-use reporting and analytical functions. Cream also enables
publishers to track special offers, such as seasonal discounts and
trade shows.
With Cream, media organizations can put their business data to work,
increasing sales and customer satisfaction. It allows employees to have
up-to-date information throughout the sales cycle, and lets managers
have greater insight into sales patterns.
Cream also allows media organizations to create targeted e-mail
newsletters based on their customers’ interests and demographics. It
works with any SMTP e-mail server for sending newsletters, and in the
very near future, an upcoming version will include a parser for
automated sorting of incoming e-mails.
Cream is free and open source software, and is released under the GNU
General Public License. This means that the software, comparable to
proprietary systems costing tens of thousands of dollars, is available
at no cost, and is freely modifiable. It runs on the open-source Linux
operating system (tested on Red Hat, Mandrake, Debian distributions),
and uses other free and open source tools such as the PostgreSQL
database server and Apache Tomcat Java application environment.
"Media organizations worldwide have a hard enough time maintaining
profitability. By releasing a powerful CRM system as free software, we
believe we will have a double effect on their balance sheets," said
CAMP Managing Director Sava Tatić.
Cream is the latest addition to the suite of free and open source tools
released under the Campware Initiative. It can be used as a stand-alone
application, or can be seamlessly integrated with the acclaimed
CAMPSITE content management system for media organizations.
