Hi, I'm looking for some advice on general database design. I'm currently developing a small personal database for a CRM application for a very small entity. We have an extremely low budget so we will have to piggyback a lot of open source front-end programs currently available.
What kind of database design will help maximize the chance of being recognized across different applications without too much manual conversion work?
One thing is certain, I'm not going to use relational model as there will be a lot of semi-structured data. XML? Python Pickles? Experts please give some tips. Many thanks!

All of the CRM packages that I've used or even heard of use SQL for storage. The vast majority of Open Source packages that I've used also use SQL for their storage. Binary files are used for multi-media like pictures, sound, and video. XML is usually used for configuration files and for inter-paclage communication.

I've never seen a CRM system with anything other than rigorously structured data. What kind of data are are you envisioning keeping about your customers?

-PatP

I agree with Pat (love your signature by the way).

I'd only add to the OP: are your requirements so specific and non-standard that you have to roll this yourself? There are a number of free/open-source options, Sugar Community Edition for example. For what it is (and being free) it's really not bad. Heavy customization can be a pain, but nothing compared to starting from scratch with "create schema crm;" and "touch index.php".