For my business DotResolve Consulting we decided to go with a open source contact manager; SugarCRM: Commercial Open Source. I had started developing my own version which offered about 1% of what SugarCRM can currently do. We felt that the maturity of the SugarCRM software development and the large community input (for module, features, etc.) was a strong reason to pursue installing the software.

SugarCRM: Commercial Open Source is a great starting point for any small and new business with small budgets. Since the product itself is free, it can be installed by a professional and extra fields can configured by a manager, thus saving your company money. Once your company grows into a medium to large business, SugarCRM Inc. offers a Professional and Enterprise Edition of the free open source alternative.

Check out the live demo that SugarCRM, Inc. has on their website. If you decide that you want to get your SugarCRM solution installed and hosted contact me and we can discuss hosting it and installation.