LDAP Server Acting As CRM

Question

I am currently working on development of a CRM product for my company. LDAP is used access information about:

• User information
• Contact information
• Network resources

LDAP can be used to lookup:

• Encryption certificates
• Pointers to printers
• Services
• Access same directory from various services

I am currently building the architecture of this CRM platform. Is it common to use LDAP as a CRM Repository? Is it a good idea to store customer information in LDAP in the context?

As an example, the software will have customers, products, orders.

I am trying to look for some examples of architectures, but can't seem to find the architecture used on most CRM systems.

I hope you can help.

Answer 1

LDAP is best suited to store data about users - it's a directory. Though it can be used to store pretty much anything, I would certainly not choose LDAP as a data store for a CRM.

Have you looked at http://www.sugarcrm.com/? You can still use your LDAP directory to authenticate users and perform lookups.