I am non-technical and inherited suitecrm from our IT guy. He set it up, we started to build modules together, and he left. I was able to build the 14 modules that we needed and have it functioning well. At some point I came on here to ask a question and learned that I am some absurd number of versions out of date (19?) and 2 years behind. I knew that when we were building it we had problems with the current version at the time (this was in February/March) and we were going to go back a version or two and update it later. I did not know we were going back over a dozen versions. My version is 7.2.2 (don’t laugh!).
Question: my employer does not see the point of updating the versions if it’s functioning “fine”. The only thing that I know is missing is the ability to have an email sent when a task is assigned. I’m sure there are so many more things I can do with the CRM if I was current. Can someone summarize what functionality I will gain from taking the time to bring the crm to the current version?
scroll down to “version list”, and check the release notes for each one. I don’t think it’s complete, some of them seem to be empty, but there’s plenty of information there.
Perhaps you can focus on the larger releases (like 7.4.0, not 7.4.3) usually that’s where the biggest features go in, but there are exceptions.
Then there’s an argument you can make from security: you really are at a risk, with plenty of known vulnerabilities to explore, if you don’t keep updating SuiteCRM (and, for that matter, everything in the stack: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP).
Finally, there’s an argument about your general approach to IT in your company. I understand it’s hard when companies aren’t large enough to afford a proper IT department, but you can mitigate that if you get a proper architecture in place, to start with. Nowadays it’s not that complicated to have a virtual machines environment where you can clone, test, get a proper disaster recovery procedure, backup, etc. If you’re nervous about upgrading SuiteCRM, then you probably also have reason to be concerned if your hard disk fails today, or if you catch a virus, or if somebody deletes everything inadvertently, etc.
Thanks. I’m the Project Manager/HIPAA Security Officer for the company so the security thing has me really worried, though we don’t store any HIPAA/patient data in the CRM. I’m just looking at the overall company information. I’ve moved the company from physical servers to SharePoint and we’ve taken the physical servers off-site and locked them up. I’m now working on getting a cloud-based mass storage for our bajillion back-ups. I have a written disaster recovery plan because it’s required by HIPAA (revising now based on the SharePoint move), I’ve created a new website and a secure client portal and am putting in place an encryption software called Virtru-very cool if anyone is interested, I have no affiliation. I had the company hire a consultant to help me with some of this. Trying to cover all my bases and this CRM is just nagging at me and it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the priority list so I need to be able to discuss it intelligently in order to get it prioritized. I really appreciate the wiki link, I’ll take a look at that. It is really hard in a small data driven company. Thanks again!
That’s a lot to take care of. I don’t think SuiteCRM needs to be the weak link in your system, or the hardest to tackle. It’s pretty flexible, you can host it in many ways and places, move it around, etc. You can also find plenty of knowledgeable people to help, for a moderate fee.
Maybe all you need is a little consulting to get it properly “inserted” into your larger scheme, your backups, your disaster recovery.
Where are you hosting it right now? in your own premises, your own server, or where?
The reason I asked is because having it locally (or on the cloud, but on a dedicated server) makes it easier to clone and try new things. On a shared hosting it’s harder (though less costly, perhaps)…
Many people keep a local clone of their SuiteCRM, since they can even install it on Windows, or in a Linux VM running under Windows (Windows 7, 8 or 10 Professional versions have Hyper-V, which runs virtual machines). This would let you clone your instance and try the upgrade on the clone, to better manage your risks.
