CRM Reviews

On Demand CRM provides a lot of benefits for small business (examples are web based salesforce automation and NetSuite ERP, two best of breed internet based solutions. If we look at online customer relationship software on the internet, directly provided by large software players, the benefits are the speed of implementation, the easy maintenance solution and finally the cost aspect.

Price is also an important factor. Microsoft for example is marketing quite heavily on the SMB market with the pricing of its business software in order to gain market share (they have deep pocjets). If we look at the benefits of CRM software for small business which is popular for SMB’s, Microsoft is definitely in one of the top positions. Microsoft  even has hosted solutions at a IT service provider but having to deal with IT consultant might be too much of a hassle.

Therefore, on-premise solutions are a no go for those companies. They need a solution which takes care of that for them so that they can focus on their core business. Small businesses do not have dedicated personel and IT staff to manage their IT environment. Microsoft ondemand crm for small business (as well as web based crm software for small business which is internet based, have benefits that are really important.

The reason why for example web CRM software for small business which is popular for SMB’s. As a result, the solutions that are most fit to satisfy these needs are web based business solutions. Those companies such as Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management. The reason why for example web CRM software has such an important attraction to small and medium business owners is the best solution. Those companies such as SalesForce’s web based business solutions.

If we, after careful review, look at the advantages of CRM software it has such an important attraction to small and medium business owners so it is definitely the best solution. That is why customer relationship software on the internet, directly provided by large software players is the speed of implementation, the easy maintenance solution and finally the cost aspect. Even hosted solutions at a local IT service provider with IT consultant might be too much of a hassle. Therefore, on-premise solutions are a no go for those companies.

They need a solution which takes care of that for them so that they can focus on their core business.  Small businesses do not have dedicated personel and IT staff to manage their IT environment.

SugarCRM is a commercial open source CRM solution with a clear focus on Sales Force Automation. The Sugar CRM community edition can be downloaded and used for free, but the company also offers a professional edition and an enterprise edition which have more advanced features. Because there is quite some interest in this solution, we decided to do a review of this CRM software as part of our CRM Reviews series.

First of all, let’s have a look at the main capabilities:

• The Reporting module features Dashboards, Marketing Analytics, Sales Trends, Customer Profiles and Sales Reports
• Sales Force Automation provides opportunity management, Contact management, Account management, Quotes & Contract, Outlook plug-in , Mobile Solutions, Dasbboards,
• The Marketing Automation component features E-Mail marketing, Multi-channel campaigns, Lead Management, Analytics, …
• The customer support component features Case Management, Inbound Email, Knowledgebase, Bug Tracking and self-service Portal
• In addition to these functional solutions, there’s also a number of collaboration features

In addition to the free open source community edition, SugarCRM provides 2 commercial editions: the professional edition and the enterprise edition (top-of-the-line). The difference between the community edition and the professional and enterprise editions are a number of advanced capabilities such as:

• Plug-ins for Microsoft Word and Outlook
• Sales Forecasting
• Reporting
• Advanced charts & dashboards
• Advanced Project Management
• Knowledgebase
• Product Catalog
• Quotes & contracts
• Wireless
• team management
• Access control
• workflow management

The enterprise edition differs from the professional edition by providing the following additional capabilities: Self Service Portal, Advanced SQL Reporting, Offline client and Oracle Support.

SugarCRM also offers a number different deployment options. One option is to go for the on-demand CRM. In this option, hosting is provided through Sugar-On-Demand who then takes care of upgrades and maintenance. This option is particularly useful for companies that do not have a dedicated IT staff and want to get up and running quickly with the CRM software. In that case the hosted SugarCRM solution is a good option.

The on-site deployment option is the preferred option for companies that want full control of their CRM environment. SugarCRM hosting is taken care off by the customer. The Faststack deployment option is some kind of a wizard based installation and configuration package which makes sure that the Sugar CRM is deployed properly at the client side. Finally, also an appliance option is available (Sugar Cube) which basically means that you buy a preconfigured server that you then need to plugin within your IT infrastructure.

The great thing about Sugar CRM is the fact that its open-source foundation provides a platform for constant innovation. Customers, open source developers, etc … contribute to the platform. The solution offers a rich feature set at an attractive price. This makes SugarCRM a good candidate for small and medium enterprises. References prove this point, almost all of the reference customers are smaller companies. The SMB focus also show from the feature set which lacks standard connectivity options towards ERP systems such as SAP (although now provided through a partner).

This Sugar CRM review gave an overview of the different editions, deployment options (SugarCRM hosting vs on-site vs appliance) and capabilities. Finally an analysis was provided positioning SugarCRM in the CRM Software landscape.