Add CRM Research as a sixth sidebar section with its own page

New nav-group below the main tabs (Team/Directory/Marketing/Sales/
Opportunities), separated by a divider since it's a newer, separate
initiative. Links out to CRM_Research_Notes.md, which already existed
with real requirements/candidate-survey content from ongoing research.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

address_book/CRM_Research_Notes.md

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+# CRM Requirements & Option Survey — Research Notes
+
+**Status:** Neutral survey, no recommendation made — per instruction to stay unbiased on solution direction until requirements are locked.
+**Date:** 2026-08-17
+
+## 1. Requirements
+
+**Must-have**
+- Contact + company records with custom fields, tagging, duplicate detection
+- Excel/CSV import with field mapping
+- Deal/pipeline with customizable stages and value tracking
+- Activity/interaction logging (calls, meetings, notes) tied to contact/deal
+- Generic IMAP/SMTP email integration — connects to any mail server via host/port/user/pass, not just an OAuth app for Gmail/Outlook (the single biggest filter for a Mailcow shop)
+- Multi-user roles/permissions
+- EU data hosting + a signed DPA (GDPR Art. 28)
+- Export/delete tooling for data-subject access/erasure requests (Art. 15/17)
+- Admin burden proportional to a non-technical 8-person team
+- Basic reporting: pipeline value, stage conversion, activity counts
+
+**Nice-to-have**
+- Mobile app
+- Email templates/sequencing/mail merge (may overlap with existing in-house mail-merge tool)
+- Bulk CSV export of LinkedIn-sourced contacts
+- Workflow automation/triggers
+- Self-hosted option (plausible given existing Nextcloud self-hosting)
+- API access (for future integration with the mail-merge tool)
+- Free tier to trial before commitment
+- Calendar sync
+
+## 2. Candidate Survey (8 candidates, alphabetical, no ranking)
+
+| CRM | CSV Import | Pipeline | Generic IMAP/SMTP | EU Hosting/GDPR | Self-Hosted | ~Cost, 8 users | Catch |
+|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+| Bitrix24 | Yes | Yes | Yes (on-premise edition) | On-prem = full control; cloud EU region exists | Yes (paid license) | Cloud free tier possible; on-prem is per-instance license | On-prem setup/maintenance is real work; UI is dense |
+| Capsule CRM | Yes | Yes | **No** — Gmail/Outlook native only, others SMTP-send only | GDPR-oriented, data-center specifics unclear | No | Quote-based | Contradicts earlier assumption of easy IMAP — needs live trial |
+| EspoCRM | Yes | Yes | **Yes**, native, well-documented | Self-hosted = full control; cloud plans exist | Yes, free open-source | Free self-hosted (server cost only) | Needs a server + basic PHP/MySQL upkeep |
+| Odoo CRM | Yes | Yes | Documented generic IMAP/POP3 support (not independently re-verified live) | Community self-hosted = full control; Online EU terms unclear | Yes, Community free | Cloud ~$9–39/user/mo | Full suite — easy to over-buy for CRM-only needs |
+| Pipedrive | Yes | Yes (core strength) | Yes, but **only Growth plan and above**, not entry Lite plan | Standard SaaS terms, check DPA specifics | No | Growth ~$39/seat/mo × 8 ≈ $312/mo | Cheapest plan lacks the IMAP feature actually needed |
+| SuiteCRM | Yes | Yes | Yes, standard IMAP config | Self-hosted = full control | Yes, free open-source | Free (server cost only) | Most feature-rich but heaviest of the open-source options |
+| Twenty CRM | Yes | Yes | **Partial/immature** — generic IMAP still being built per own GitHub discussions | Self-hosted = full control | Yes, free, active dev | Free (server cost only) | High risk for a Mailcow-only shop today |
+| Zoho CRM | Yes | Yes | Supported at protocol level (TLS) | EU data center (Netherlands); **sources conflict on whether DPA/EU-region needs Enterprise tier** | No | ~$14–40/user/mo (annual); 8 users ≈ $112–320/mo | Cheapest tier may not include the EU-hosting guarantee needed |
+
+**Lower-confidence, not fully checked:** Freshsales (custom-email-server config exists, $9–71/user/mo, free-for-3-users), Vtiger (self-host reportedly de-emphasized by vendor), Salesflare/Close (appear Gmail/Outlook-centric, IMAP unclear), Insightly (insufficient detail found).
+
+## 2b. Corporate-origin filter (2026-08-17): US-headquartered/US-owned vendors excluded
+
+Requirement added: exclude vendors headquartered or majority-owned in the US, for data-sovereignty reasons (not just data-center location — corporate/legal exposure).
+
+**Excluded on this basis:**
+- **Bitrix24** — Russian-origin dev, commercial arm run via Bitrix, Inc. (Virginia, US) + a Cyprus entity. Double exposure (Russia + US).
+- **Pipedrive** — HQ New York, US; majority-owned by Vista Equity Partners (US PE, Austin TX). No self-host option to route around this.
+- **Twenty CRM** — legal entity is Twenty.com PBC, Delaware, US (YC-backed), despite the team being Paris-based. Self-hosting the open-source (AGPL) edition sidesteps the US entity, but the vendor itself is American.
+- **weclapp** (a candidate surfaced below) — German-founded but now owned by Exact Group (Netherlands), itself majority-owned by KKR (US PE). Not clean despite the German branding.
+
+**Remain viable (non-US):**
+- **EspoCRM** — core dev entity Letrium LLC, Chernivtsi, Ukraine; also runs a newer US commercial arm (EspoCRM, Inc.) for cloud/paid support. Self-hosting the open-source edition avoids both entities entirely — cleanest way to keep using it.
+- **Odoo CRM** — Odoo SA/NV, Ramillies, **Belgium (EU)**, independently owned, not PE-backed. Clean.
+- **SuiteCRM** — SalesAgility Ltd, Stirling, **Scotland, UK** — non-EU but non-US, independent. Fully open-source/self-hostable — strongest sovereignty story of the original 8.
+- **Zoho CRM** — Zoho Corporation, Chennai, **India**; privately held by the Vembu family, no VC/PE. Non-US, non-EU.
+- **Capsule CRM** — Zestia Ltd, Manchester, **UK** — already deprioritized for lacking generic IMAP, but confirmed non-US anyway.
+
+**New EU-native alternatives surfaced (not on the original 8, worth adding to the survey):**
+- **CentralStationCRM** — genuinely German (42he GmbH, Cologne), native IMAP/SMTP, cloud-hosted in Germany. Worth checking against the requirements list directly.
+- **Dolibarr** — French **non-profit association**, not a company at all — no corporate parent, no PE exposure. Fully self-hosted open source. Cleanest sovereignty story found, but needs a features/IMAP check against the requirements list (not yet verified this pass).
+- **Efficy CRM** (Belgium) — plausible EU option, but current ownership/investor structure not fully verified — confirm before shortlisting.
+
+## 3. Notes / Caveats
+- HubSpot's EU hosting confirmed tier-gated (free = US-only). monday.com confirmed to lack native IMAP/SMTP. Both re-confirm earlier scouting — still dropped.
+- **New finding:** Capsule CRM, often assumed simple = flexible, does not appear to support full generic IMAP — worth a live trial before including or excluding it.
+- **Zoho's EU/DPA tier requirement is contested** across sources — get this in writing from Zoho sales before assuming the Standard tier covers it.
+- EspoCRM cloud pricing figures found were inconsistently formatted — unverified, check EspoCRM's own site directly.
+- Pricing pages change often; the figures above are an August 2026 snapshot, not a quote.
+- Self-hosted options shift cost from license fees to server + maintenance time — real even when "free," for a team with no dedicated sysadmin.
+
+**Sources:** [Pipedrive IMAP/SMTP](https://support.pipedrive.com/en/article/how-can-i-find-my-imap-and-smtp-information) · [Pipedrive email sync plans](https://support.pipedrive.com/en/article/email-sync) · [Pipedrive pricing](https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/pipedrive-pricing/) · [Zoho GDPR](https://www.zoho.com/gdpr.html) · [Zoho pricing](https://chatarmin.com/en/blog/zoho-pricing) · [EspoCRM IMAP/SMTP docs](https://docs.espocrm.com/user-guide/imap-smtp-configuration/) · [EspoCRM pricing](https://pricingnow.com/question/espocrm-pricing/) · [Comparison: SuiteCRM/EspoCRM/Vtiger/Odoo](https://www.saasworthy.com/compare/suitecrm-vs-vtiger-vs-espocrm-vs-odoo-crm?pIds=2075%2C2203%2C10771%2C29829) · [Odoo pricing](https://oec.sh/odoo-pricing) · [Twenty CRM IMAP discussion](https://github.com/twentyhq/twenty/discussions/5489) · [Twenty vs EspoCRM](https://use-apify.com/blog/twenty-crm-vs-espocrm-2026) · [HubSpot EU hosting tiers](https://whitehat-seo.co.uk/blog/hubspot-crm-uk-guide) · [monday.com IMAP limitation](https://community.monday.com/t/can-we-use-a-standard-hosted-imap-email-service-for-email-integration-rather-than-microsoft-business-premium/61461) · [Bitrix24 on-premise](https://www.bitrix24.com/self-hosted/) · [Freshsales custom email servers](https://crmsupport.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/195170-set-up-emails-on-gmail-microsoft-office-and-other-customer-servers) · [Capsule email integrations](https://capsulecrm.com/blog/bring-outlook-and-gmail-into-capsule-crm/) · [GDPR CRM DSAR guidance](https://usercentrics.com/knowledge-hub/crm-gdpr/)

index.html

@@ -755,6 +755,11 @@
     </div>
     <hr />
 
+    <div class="nav-group">
+      <button class="sidebar-nav-btn" data-tab="crm-research">CRM Research</button>
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     <div class="sidebar-footer">TXproducts · Internal Tool · 2026</div>
   </div>
 
@@ -4490,6 +4495,16 @@
     <div id="tab-opportunities" class="tab-content">
       <div class="opp-loading">Loading…</div>
     </div>
+
+    <div id="tab-crm-research" class="tab-content">
+      <div class="card">
+        <h2>CRM Research</h2>
+        <p class="narrative">No CRM today — contacts live across Excel sheets, the LinkedIn follower list, and the conference mail-merge sheet. This page tracks the research into what TXproducts actually needs before picking one. [Placeholder narrative — edit me.]</p>
+        <div class="drill-actions">
+          <a class="open-link" href="address_book/CRM_Research_Notes.md" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Open CRM Research Notes ↗</a>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+    </div>
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     "sales":         ["Sales", ""],
-    "opportunities": ["Opportunities", ""]
+    "opportunities": ["Opportunities", ""],
+    "crm-research":  ["CRM Research", "Evaluating CRM options for TXproducts."]
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