Month: March 2008

Episode 17 – Selling Linux – Part 1

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This week, we will talk with a provider who specializes in Linux and Linux based solutions and find out how we can provide open source solutions to our customers as well. Part 1 of a 3 part series.

TechPodcasts Promo Tag :10
Intro 1:17
Billboard 4:26

News and Comment segment 4:57
Intel Corp. announced that it plans to release a six core processor before the end of 2008. The Force Field is conducting a Trivia Contest during the month of March.

If you are a regular listener of The Force Field podcast, you now have the chance to take your knowledge of the show and win prizes! All you have to do is listen to the podcast, log into The Force Field web site at theforcefield.net, click on The Force Field Podcast Trivia Contest link on the right sidebar and answer the ten trivia questions. If you answer all ten questions correctly you will be entered into a drawing to win a 1GB USB flash drive or an Nvidia partnerForce T-shirt! Enter The Force Field podcast Trivia Contest today and win! Contest ends March 31, 2008.

The idea for the Force Field Trivia Contest came from Genoagirl, one of the Administrators of TheForceField.Net. We needed to meet with the other administrators to plan the details of the contest, and a physical meeting was out of the question. So we used GoToMeeting. Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts.

Microsoft notified users of its popular Excel spreadsheet program that a patch released Tuesday causes the application to return erroneous results in calculations. The patch was for Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-014, a vulnerability in Excel that allows remote code execution. The patch was listed as critical and effects Microsoft Office Excel 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007 as well as Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac. The bug causes certain calculations performed in Microsoft Excel to return a value of – zero.

Commercial Break :53
Geekazine Podcast Promo :30

The Mike Tech Show Podcast promo :23

Intro to Interview 2:16
Most IT Solution Providers are used to selling and supporting hardware and software in a Microsoft Windows environment and many hold Microsoft certifications or are experienced Windows users themselves. For the vast majority of these professionals, it is a Windows world and those who want to be profitable in the IT industry must know and support Microsoft Windows and other Windows based solutions.

For some of them it is all they know and is considered their only option, but there are a few service providers who carve their niche in the industry by specializing in alternative solutions.

One of those Providers is Todd Hughes. Todd is a Linux guru and writes articles and tutorials on Linux related topics at The Force Field.net. His most recent article is called Selling Open Source. The article touches on selling open source applications to your customers as effective alternatives to commercial programs.

This week we’re going to talk to Todd and find out how he began selling Linux, where the market for Linux is now and how we can sell open source solutions to our customers at great profit in part 1 of our three part series on Selling Linux.

Todd Hughes Interview 12:47

Wrap up and Close :46

©2008 Savoia Computer. All rights reserved.

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Episode 17 – Selling Linux – Part 1

by

This week, we will talk with a provider who specializes in Linux and Linux based solutions and find out how we can provide open source solutions to our customers as well. Part 1 of a 3 part series.

TechPodcasts Promo Tag :10
Intro 1:17
Billboard 4:26

News and Comment segment 4:57
Intel Corp. announced that it plans to release a six core processor before the end of 2008. The Force Field is conducting a Trivia Contest during the month of March.

If you are a regular listener of The Force Field podcast, you now have the chance to take your knowledge of the show and win prizes! All you have to do is listen to the podcast, log into The Force Field web site at theforcefield.net, click on The Force Field Podcast Trivia Contest link on the right sidebar and answer the ten trivia questions. If you answer all ten questions correctly you will be entered into a drawing to win a 1GB USB flash drive or an Nvidia partnerForce T-shirt! Enter The Force Field podcast Trivia Contest today and win! Contest ends March 31, 2008.

The idea for the Force Field Trivia Contest came from Genoagirl, one of the Administrators of TheForceField.Net. We needed to meet with the other administrators to plan the details of the contest, and a physical meeting was out of the question. So we used GoToMeeting. Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts.

Microsoft notified users of its popular Excel spreadsheet program that a patch released Tuesday causes the application to return erroneous results in calculations. The patch was for Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-014, a vulnerability in Excel that allows remote code execution. The patch was listed as critical and effects Microsoft Office Excel 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007 as well as Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac. The bug causes certain calculations performed in Microsoft Excel to return a value of – zero.

Commercial Break :53
Geekazine Podcast Promo :30

The Mike Tech Show Podcast promo :23

Intro to Interview 2:16
Most IT Solution Providers are used to selling and supporting hardware and software in a Microsoft Windows environment and many hold Microsoft certifications or are experienced Windows users themselves. For the vast majority of these professionals, it is a Windows world and those who want to be profitable in the IT industry must know and support Microsoft Windows and other Windows based solutions.

For some of them it is all they know and is considered their only option, but there are a few service providers who carve their niche in the industry by specializing in alternative solutions.

One of those Providers is Todd Hughes. Todd is a Linux guru and writes articles and tutorials on Linux related topics at The Force Field.net. His most recent article is called Selling Open Source. The article touches on selling open source applications to your customers as effective alternatives to commercial programs.

This week we're going to talk to Todd and find out how he began selling Linux, where the market for Linux is now and how we can sell open source solutions to our customers at great profit in part 1 of our three part series on Selling Linux.

Todd Hughes Interview 12:47

Wrap up and Close :46

©2008 Savoia Computer. All rights reserved.

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Sony Offers to Remove Bloatware From Its Laptops – For an Extra $50

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(TheForceField.Net ) March 21, 2008 — Sony Corp. now offers to scrub its new laptops clean of bloatware they install – for a fee.

Fresh Start™, a software optimization service offered to customers on Sony's web site, is available as a customization option when purchasing selected Sony TZ series laptops. The service is aimed specifically at business users and is available for purchase only with an upgrade to Microsoft Windows Vista Business, which is costs an additional $100. Fresh Start costs an additional $49.99 and is not available to home users at this time.

The service removes trial versions of software and other "bloatware" from the laptop that is initially installed during the build. According to Sony "your VAIO PC will undergo a system optimization service where specific VAIO applications, trial software and games are removed from your unit prior to shipment. Fresh Start™ safely scrubs your PC to free up valuable hard drive space and conserve memory and processing power while maximizing overall system performance right from the start."

OEM system builders such as Dell, HP and Sony typically load their new PCs with trial or "crippleware" versions of popular software titles, most of which are little more than paid product endorsements that nag consumers to buy the full versions.  The presence of such software takes up valuable hard drive space and consumes resources, thereby slowing down performance of the computer, hence the name bloatware.

Consumers often complain about the unwanted bloatware and it is a serious  issue for businesseses, particularly those that upgrade systems to improve speed, performance and productivity. For many consumers, purchasing a new computer means one two hours removing the bloatware once they open the box and turn it on the PC for the first time. Some opt to take it to a local shop and pay a technician $65 or more to have the bloatware removed.

Sony will remove it during their Configure-To-Order customization process.

Selling Open Source

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There are many open source alternatives to the proprietary/licensed versions of common commercial software applications. For those of us who serve the small business customer, these alternatives can provide a means to increase our income and drive sales by providing solutions for our customers that they might not otherwise be able to afford.    
   
     A good example of this is a small company with about 15 users that wants the benefits of a groupware server (mail, shared calendering and documents, etc.) but cannot realistically afford Microsoft's SBS or Exchange. Enter Zimbra, an open source collaboration suite. Zimbra offers everything that Exchange does in an easy to install and manage package: mail server (POP & IMAP), shared calendering, shared documents, and a host of other goodies. Users access their mail and other features via a web browser (ala OWA) making remote access available to the users even when they are at home or on the road.    

    Take a look at the screen shot below, does it look familiar? No, that's not OWA, it's Zimbra! Setup and administration is done via the web interface but there are also several command line tools available to perform various functions such as importing mail from an existing mail server, batch creation of user accounts, etc. User authentication can be done locally or Zimbra can be tied into an existing Active Directory environment for authentication.  As a service provider, you can enable inbound port 22 and port 7071 traffic through the customer's firewall (from your IP address at the shop only!) and have secure remote access to configuration files and the administrative interface to help your customers with any problems that they may have.

 

Zimbra

Zimbra is installed on top of a basic Linux operating system. I built mine on top of Ubuntu server.  Download the iso image   for Ubuntu Server 6.06.1 LTS and install the operating system. You can accept defaults during the install with the exception of the IP address; if it grabs a DHCP address just use the “back” button and manually assign the proper information. Next, install the Zimbra suite. A good how-to can be found here .

    Setup of Zimbra (including a quick start guide) can be found in the documentation at the Zimbra web site .   

    So, procure a decent server (nothing fancy, P4 2+Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 150-200 GB HD), install Ubuntu/Zimbra, and offer it to your clients as an “open source Exchange” server. Mark up the hardware to include a nice profit and cover your time building the server, charge them a few bucks for installation, offer support at maybe $500.00/yr, and start making some money on open source!

    Keep in mind that Zimbra is just the tip of the iceberg. There's Ebox (an SBS like clone), Snort/BASE (IDS), IPCop (Sonicwall like firewall), MySQL/MyPHP Admin (database and frontend), Ntop (network and bandwidth utilization),  Apache (web server), Nagios (networking monitoring and alerting), PacketFence (NAC), Zenoss (an HP OpenView/What'sUp Gold like clone), Squid/SquidGuard (a Websense/SurfControl like clone), many different versions of the Linux desktop, etc, etc. Start getting familiar with Linux and open source and you will find that you have something to offer your customers that the “other guys” don't.

    As always, if you have any questions, comments, problems, or want to name your first born after me, please feel free to contact me at thughes@fwpm.com.

Copyright 2007 Todd Hughes

 

Intel To Ship Six Core Processor This Year

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(TheForceField.Net ) March 18, 2008 —  Intel Corp. announced yesterday that it plans to release a six core processor before the end of 2008.

Intel, a leading manufacturer of processors and microchip technology, disclosed features of the chip architecture in a press briefing yesterday. In the briefing, Pat Gelsinger, Intel Vice Senior President and General Manager, Digital Enterprise Group, discussed several processors including the Dunnington mutli-core processor for servers, the next-generation Itanium processor known as Tukwila and Nehalem, which Intel says is scalable from two to eight cores.

Gelsinger said Dunnington is the first Intel Architecture 45nm processor with six cores and is socket compatible with the Caneland platform. Gelsinger indicated the processor would be available in the second half of 2008.

Tukwila is a four core Itanium processor with a 30MB cache, dual integrated memory controller and RAS. It is the world's first processor with two billion transisters, according to Intel.

Nehalem will include simultaneous multi-threading with four to sixteen threads, up to 8MB level-3 cache, QUickpath interconnects at speeds up to 25.6GB/sec integrated memory controller and optional integrated graphics. Nehalem is designed to scale from servers to notebooks and will be scalable up to eight cores.

Details of Intel's Multicore ArchitectureBriefing are available on their web site.

Microsoft Patches and Breaks Excel

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(TheForceField.Net ) March 15, 2008 — Microsoft notified users of its popular Excel spreadsheet program that a patch released Tuesday causes the application to return erroneous results in calculations.

In a message posted March 14 on The Microsoft Security Response Center site (MSRC) Bill Sisk, Microsoft Security Response Communication Manager, wrote "I wanted to let you know that we have updated bulletin MS08-014 to provide additional information on a newly identified issue that causes Microsoft Excel 2003 calculations to return an incorrect result when a Real Time Data source is used."

The patch was for Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-014, a vulnerability in Excel that allows remote code execution. The patch was listed as critical and effects Microsoft Office Excel 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007 as well as Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac.

"Our teams are testing a fix and will release it once it meets our quality bar for broad distribution.", Sisk wrote.

 

AVG Nightmare: The Risks of Reselling Software

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(TheForceField.Net) March 15, 2008 — Steven Young has a story to tell, and it’s pretty scary. It is a story about how a trusted vendor can easily put a reseller on a limb and possibly out of business at a moment’s notice. His experience is a good lesson for all of us, not just when selling software but when we do any type of consulting or migration with any software purchased.
 
Young, an IT reseller and member of computerbusiness@yahoogroups, posted about the incident early yesterday morning in the newsgroup. It is repost by permission in its entirety in The Force Field forums .

Young had registered as an AVG reseller and had been migrating his clients away from Norton and to AVG Network Edition. He recently sold one of his clients 100 user licenses of Network Edition 7.5. It hadn’t been an quick sell. Young had to meet with his client, a charity, numerous times to get approval for the purchase and migration. The client approved the purchase, but there was a problem.

 “Between board meetings to approve the software purchase and further meetings to approve the installation labor, AVG version 8 was released.”, Young wrote.  “I’ve been pretty deep in proposals writing and other work and didn’t pay much attention to the 8 release. I was planning to try it out but not to use it until the bugs get worked out – since most software companies release first versions when they should still be in beta these days.”

Young attempted to order licenses for version 7.5 but it was no longer for sale. The problem was, version 8 .0 was almost double the price and the client had already given Young a check.  Fortunately, once Young called the reseller support line they agreed to sell him version 8.0 for the same price as  version 7.5.

But when Young downloaded the trial version of 8.0 he found it too resource intensive. It also caused issues with FireFox. The software company offered a downgrade license to 7.5 so he decided to take advantage of it.

After a round of e-mails with Grisoft he finally reached someone who was willing to provide the downgrade, with a catch. To his surprise Young was told that AVG 7.5 updates would cease after December 31, 2008. After that date all installations were required to upgrade to version 8.0.

Young was miffed. “I asked who was paying me to upgrade 100+ computers from 7.5 to 8.0 only 9 months after paying me to install 7.5 on a 2 year license. She tried to comfort me by saying ‘there will be a button the user can click to upgrade to 8.0’!”, he fumed. Then he added, “I’m done with them.”

“You have been warned. Wish I had been!” Young said.

 
In an e-mail to The Force Field Young said he spoke to AVG Channel Operations Manager Jeff Zinnert. According to Young, Zinnert confirmed that version 7.5 would no longer update after December 31st.  “They are reviewing this due to outcry from other resellers though and it may change.. Hopefully!” Young said.
 
Reselling software is a risky business.
 
{mos_fb_discuss:197} 

Kaplan Continuing Education Adds Five New Online Microsoft Certification Programs

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Microsoft Certified Professional Certificate Programs offer career IT training in advanced fields like systems engineering, systems administration and information technology.

Davenport, IA (PRWEB) March 14, 2008 — Kaplan University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies announced its new name: Kaplan Continuing Education (KCE), as well as the launch of five new online Microsoft certification programs designed for Career IT training and to help you reach new levels of your career.

"We are excited to offer these new Kaplan Continuing Education programs for professionals seeking to enhance their skills and marketability," said Ron Trautman, Vice President and General Manager of Kaplan Continuing Education. "The goal of our programs is to help professionals with advanced career training to accelerate their careers in fast-paced industries like those associated with the Internet and software technology."

KCE Career IT training is available 24/7 from any computer, anywhere in the world and includes:

The Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) Certificate program, which is designed to teach System Engineers and Analysts how to plan, implement, maintain and support information systems. The curriculum will include seven courses, including Managing and Maintaining a Win 2003 Server, and Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP.

The Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) Certificate program, which includes a three-course curriculum, is geared toward network and systems administrators who plan to work or currently work with Microsoft Windows Server 2003. The courses are designed to teach technical proficiency and expertise in Microsoft Systems environments.

The Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) Certificate program, which offers three certification paths: Web Developer, Windows Developer or Enterprise Applications. This coursework is designed to prepare professional developers to assist in building technical infrastructure for organizations.

The Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) Certificate program, which is designed to teach students to support Microsoft Windows, Web applications or distributed applications that use the.NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 development. This program also offers three certification options: .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications, .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Applications or .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications. The MCTS coursework is geared toward helping students become proficient in troubleshooting and debugging Microsoft applications.

The Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) Certificate, which is geared towards helping professionals prepare for the CISSP examination. This program consists of courses such as Enterprise Security Architecture; Telecommunications, Networks and Internet Security; and Information Security and Risk Management

With more than 70 years of innovative education experience, KCE programs empower professionals to take their career to the next level by giving them a real-world education with the flexibility to achieve advanced career training on their own terms, in their own time. Typically, programs can be completed in nine to 12 months.

Enrollment in the online Microsoft certification programs begins immediately. For more information on Kaplan Continuing Education, visit http://www.kaplan.edu/ku/schools/continuinged.

About Kaplan Continuing Education (KCE):
Kaplan Continuing Education (KCE) provides advanced career training and coursework focused on improving academic success for online students in various categories, focusing on Business and Finance, Healthcare and Information Technology.

Kaplan University, based in Davenport, Iowa, is regionally accredited by The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA). The University offers more than 100 academic programs and currently serves more than 38,000 online and on-ground students, with support centers in Fort Lauderdale, Chicago and Phoenix. To learn more, visit www.kaplanuniversitynews.com.

About Kaplan Higher Education
Kaplan University is part of Kaplan Higher Education, which serves more than 75,000 students through 70 campus-based schools across the United States and in Europe. It also has online programs through Kaplan Virtual Education and Concord Law School of Kaplan University. Kaplan Higher Education schools offer a spectrum of academic opportunities, from high school diplomas to graduate and professional degrees, including a Juris Doctor degree. Kaplan Higher Education is part of Kaplan, Inc., a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).
For more information, visit www.kaplan.com.

4DSP launches PEG2000 hardware compression platform

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A unique JPEG2000 hardware compression platform has been launched by 4DSP, an innovative design company based in the USA and Europe. Powered by Xilinx FPGA accelerators, the new system promises better image compression to meet the needs of next generation digital cameras, 4G infrastructure and headsets.

Nevada, USA (PRWEB) March 14, 2008 — A unique JPEG2000 hardware compression platform has been launched by 4DSP, an innovative design company based in the USA and Europe. Powered by Xilinx FPGA accelerators, the new system promises better image compression to meet the needs of next generation digital cameras, 4G infrastructure and headsets. In addition, medical, military and other precision imaging applications will benefit from improved compression performance.

JPEG2000 is a wavelet-based digital imaging compression standard superseding the original discrete cosine transform-based JPEG compression method. 4DSP's JPEG2000 PMC daughter card is based on two ADV212 devices and a low-cost SPARTAN-3AN FPGA.

The JPEG2000 CODEC platform from 4DSP can grab and compress up to 140Mpixels per second from two independent cameras. It can either encode the video frames prior to or after applying an advanced video/imaging algorithm. Real-time pre-processing on raw data can be performed in the Virtex-4 or Virtex-5 FPGA devices. This flexibility can be used to correct effects such as local brightness or barrel distortion to enhance image quality and filter out elements that may reduce the compression effectiveness.

"The JPEG2000 compression rate is much more efficient than traditional JPEG algorithms," said Pierrick Vulliez, CTO of 4DSP Inc, "This solution accelerates the next generation of image compression for digital cameras, 4G infrastructure and headset systems."

"JPEG2000 is the preferred compression method to store vital digital data from microscopy and radiography imagery instruments and it is expected to be the premium compression solution for most demanding medical applications," commented Sebastien Maury, sales and marketing director of 4DSP Europe.

Technical information on the JPEG2000 daughter card is available online at www.4dsp.com/modules/FP-JPEG2K.htm. More details on the 4DSP VID475 JPEG2000 compressing platform can be found at www.4dsp.com/VID475. Alternatively, email info@4dsp.com.

More Information

USA
Pierrick Vulliez, CTO
Tel. +1-800-816-1751 Fax. +1-916-880-207
E-mail: sales @ 4dsp.com Web: www.4dsp.com
4DSP Inc, 955 South Virginia St, Suite 214, Reno, NV 89502, USA

Europe
Sebastien Maury, Sales and Marketing Director
Tel. +31-172-782-190 Fax. +31-172-891-261
E-mail: saleseurope @ 4dsp.com Web: www.4dsp.com
4DSP Europe, Leidse Schouw 2, 2408AE, Alphen a/d Rijn, The Netherlands

High res image can be downloaded from: www.clickintopr.com/editors/articleDetail.asp?pjID=543

vtiger Upgrades Leading and Fully Open Source vtiger CRM Suite

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vtiger today announced the availability of vtiger CRM 5.0.4, a new release of its fully open source CRM suite with a number of improvements and feature enhancements. vtiger CRM integrates many useful CRM functions including Sales Force Automation, Customer Support & Service, Marketing Automation, and Inventory Management. vtiger CRM is widely used around the world, with over a thousand downloads a day and over 1.5 million downloads to date.

India and Sunnyvale, CA (PRWEB) March 13, 2008 — vtiger today announced the availability of vtiger CRM 5.0.4, a new release of its fully open source CRM suite with a number of improvements and feature enhancements. vtiger CRM 5.0.4 addresses critical security issues, and a number of other issues reported by the vtiger community. Key enhancements include enhanced UTF-8 support for foreign languages, SSL support for email access, ability to export selective records, and ability to send marketing emails with rich text. The new version also sports a new default theme selected by the vtiger community.

vtiger CRM integrates many useful CRM functions including Sales Force Automation, Customer Support & Service, Marketing Automation, and Inventory Management. It provides strong Security Management, Calendaring, and E-mail integration (with Outlook and gmail).

"Version 5.0.4 is an important milestone towards providing SMBs and enterprises with a fully open source CRM that is robust, flexible and feature-rich," said Sreenivas Kanumuru, VP of Business Development at vtiger. "Over 900 change requests submitted by the community have been addressed in the 5.0.4 version."

The vtiger partner network continues to grow with over 15 new partners in various countries signed up in the last quarter. vtiger partners can now take advantage of the newly introduced 2nd Level support to support their client's vtiger CRM installations.

In addition to the core vtiger CRM open source software, a large selection of plug-ins and extensions are available on vtiger forge. These plugin-ins, including Outlook, Asterisk, and Web Forms plug-in help users integrate vtiger with other applications. Users can extend the functionality of vtiger by installing plug-ins such as Customer Support Portal, Project Management module, etc.

About vtiger CRM:
vtiger CRM is a community-driven, fully open source, CRM software project. The aim of the project is to provide the best and most open CRM solution with the lowest total cost of ownership to small and medium enterprises. The product is widely used throughout the world, with over a thousand downloads a day and over 1.5 million downloads to date. vtiger CRM has an active community of developers and users, with contributors from many different countries. It is available in many languages, with a strong partner network in dozens of countries.

vtiger CRM has been deployed by thousands of enterprises in various industries around the globe. vtiger CRM customers include Aegon USA, Nokia, NYSE Euronext, PB Factoring GmbH ( German Postbank), Datentechnik, Data HQ Limited (UK), Eon Products, and American Broadband Family Of Companies.

vtiger is a Private Limited Corporation with offices in Chennai and Bangalore, India and Sunnyvale, California, and manages the vtiger CRM open source project. Unlike more expensive CRM offerings, including venture-backed open source solutions, vtiger CRM provides small and medium enterprises with completely free and open source software, with low support and customization costs. Users incur higher costs with other leading CRM products, due to the huge marketing and other costs of venture-backed or public companies. vtiger CRM maintains a low cost operation with a community-driven model and a small core team at the vtiger company, for product development, support, training, and customization services.