We’ve been working on a project I think you’ll find interesting. Yathit InboxCRM is a Chrome extension that brings SugarCRM and Suite CRM right into your Gmail inbox, but this one provides a better user experience and tighter security than any similar products out there. I’ll highlight the important aspects below and link to relevant code samples, so you can see for yourself.
Browser Database
The most frequently used data, such as contacts, users, accounts, and leads, is fully cached in a browser database, making 20ms queries on these records. This is a significant time savings over loading the standard CRM portal. Other frequently used data such as opportunities from the last six months and upcoming activity records are also partially cached in the browser database.
We also have the most advanced full-text search technology, providing powerful, accurate search results in fractions of a second.
Synchronization
The heart of our web app is synchronization from the SugarCRM server to the browser database. We use the last_modified field for paging offset during synchronization. We also use write ahead logging to automatically resolve client/server database inconsistencies during network failures and for manual reversal of revisions.
On top of all of this, we have bi-directional synchronization between Google GData and the SugarCRM module using three-way merge and word-level automatic conflict resolution.
Exquisite UI Components
Instead of traditional CRM interface elements rendered generically from metadata, we make exquisite UI components, such as Record Selector that auto-suggests as you type, Name Editor that lets you edit the entire name or individual fields of the name record, and Related Panels which load and display automatically based on user interaction. This care adds personality to the UI of the extension and provides a consistent experience inside the Gmail window.
All of these components are expanded, contracted or hidden for optimal usability, based on context and user interaction.
Despite the significant complexity required for all of these details, our code is so simple that even a new developer can patch the production code on day one. We use Google Closure Tools to manage our huge code base, which is compiled over more than 500 javascript files, and we deploy our apps once or twice per day.
Security
Everything mentioned above makes us a little better than the competition, but security is where we leave everyone else behind. Serving all data over SSL connections is the bare minimum any web app can do, and that’s where most of the competition stops with their security. We’ve seen our competitors logging everything, storing private credentials server side, and requesting all website data. (Which can include your bank data!) This is not cool at all.
You’ll notice that our extension requests only enough permissions to do our job. We keep your CRM credentials in the browser. All CRM REST API calls are direct, meaning your data passes from your browser to your CRM server without passing through any proxy server. Your CRM credentials and data never leave your own hardware infrastructure. Our logging is optional, and we make it easy to run all of our stacks on your own server with our Enterprise license.
Help Wanted
Would you like to see this integration added directly to SuiteCRM instead of as a browser extension? What do you think could be done better? Do you think this is something you would use, for yourself or a client? I’m looking for channel partners to sell our extension to SuiteCRM users and system integrators, so let me know what you think!