In honor of the SplendidCRM 1.4 release, I’m going to post an email that I sent to John Roberts, CEO of SugarCRM.

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Rony
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 1:26 PM
To: john@sugar.com
Subject: Introduction to SplendidCRM

John Roberts,

I'm working on a project that might interest you.  As a personal challenge, I've decided to port your SugarCRM application from a LAMP implementation to a Microsoft .NET 2.0 implementation.  My original goal was to learn the new features of .NET 2.0 and, in most cases, the only way to learn is to create a real and complete application.  It then occurred to me that the results could be a showcase on how to convert a LAMP project to .NET and how much better, in my opinion, the application would be because of it. 

I simply don't agree with your SourceForge.net statement that LAMP is "the least complex, most portable, and most cost-efficient platform to run a CRM application on".  Although I cannot dispute the portable issue, all the others are non-issues.  As someone who has architected and lead a team of developers, I tend to prize ease of development and simplicity of code. .NET 2.0 has these two attributes.  So much so, that I believe that I, as a single skilled developer, believe that I can duplicate the work of your developers in one-quarter of the time. 

Here are some of the advantages that my project, named SplendidCRM, will provide:
1) Stored procedures and views are a much better architecture when compared to SQL embedded in PHP code.  MSDE is a better and free SQL database than MySQL.
2) Use of .NET 2.0 WebParts will allow the user to customize their home page, with very little development effort to implement.
3) Better support for multiple languages though use of XML resources files.
4) Possible support for Oracle (if I have the time)
5) Better HTML formatting.
6) Inline ASPX code is much better than PHP technique of replacing parameters.
7) Use of .NET 2.0 Master Web pages will simplify development.  MasterPages make a print view trivial.
8) Use of .NET 2.0 themes and skins will allow similar theme management.
9) Use of .NET 2.0 SqlDataSources will dramatically reduce the amount of coding.
10) Use of .NET 2.0 GridView and DetailsView will allow advanced database management with minimal code.
11) .NET Mobile extensions will allow quick support on PocketPC and SmartPhone devices.

In as little as 50 hours of development, I have already completed 40% of the port.  My goal is to complete the port in 160 man-hours, effective one man month.

I have already spoken with the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 marketing team and they said that they would post a whitepaper if I were to write one.  I'd like to take it one step further by also posting performance tests comparing LAMP to .NET 2.0, but I'm not sure that I will have the resources to do so.

When I'm done, I'd like to post SplendidCRM side-by-side with SugarCRM.  I'd like to see how many people would choose the LAMP implementation if given the choice between it and an otherwise identical Microsoft-centric application.

I'm not looking to get into any legal issues, so I'm giving you a heads-up before I make public any of my progress.  Please keep in mind that I hold no ill-will toward anyone who supports the LAMP technologies, I simply would like to prove my point that the MS technologies are better.

If you would like to contact me, I can be reached at 919-604-1258 and at paul@rony.com

Sincerely,
Paul Rony