Discovering                                             he real value of CRM -                                                                2005/01/21 [Johannesburg, 21 January 2005] - "Companies, especially small businesses, need a good CRM system to stay on top of everything. We decided on Vtiger because it is open source as well as sales-driven," explains Thomas Muller, MD of Arkateq. "One of the problems we had with other CRM systems was that they did not easily allow customisation. The real value of a CRM system is unleashed if it is possible to integrate into existing systems, easily and cost-effectively," continues Muller. "We looked at a few other products and while Vtiger does not proclaim to be the ultimate CRM system, it is freely available for download, runs on Windows and Linux and offers Outlook integration," states Andre Coetzee, the Operations Director at Arkateq. "Due to the availability of the source code, Arkateq is willing to assist businesses that want to use Vtiger and integrate, as well as customise it according to the specific needs of the customer. Furthermore, it is easy to install, operate and implement," comments Coetzee. "We have been using Vtiger for a couple of months and are very impressed with its functionality. It is a sales-driven tool with good reporting features," continues Coetzee. Arkateq, a Novell SuSE Linux business partner, believes the addition of VTiger will assist the company to spend its time with the correct customers and opportunities.