Just recently Salesforce made an IMHO quite significant but interesting step. One the one hand they are releasing a new UI with their Ligthning Design. A makeover that was more than needed. Looking at Salesforce’s UI it has aged and was no longer what a modern app should look like. So this I would consider a normal step. Still interesting on it, is to see, how they struggle to get the product aligned. This seemingly also seems to be a big step to get their own functions migrated to the new technology and UI. But it will be even more interesting to see how long it takes the partners and OEMs developing on their platform to adopt the new styles and layouts. I would bet that this is a multi year project -let’s see who is right.
But more interesting is that they released the underlying Lightning Design System under a public license. I believe this is a bold move. It is also interesting to see their interpretation that they want to be more and more of a platform provider. It is also cool to see this in conjunction with SugarCRM just doing the opposite. While Salesforce keeps the backend closed but opens the frontend, SugarCRM still supports the open CE based backend but closed the source with their SugarUX that is only available commercially.
What does this mean for SpiceCRM? We believe this is a great opportunity to join a couple of components. SugarCRM is a strong and very fast backbone for robust CRM Applications. On the other hand you need to admit clearly that salesforce did an outstanding job in the development of their Lightning Design. This is great looking and well thought through. So the simple plan for us is to marry the both together. Use the Open Source based backend and connect it with the also Open Source base Lightning Design on the frontend.
Sounds like a plan – doesn’t it?