CRM Evolution: New Product Solution January 22, 2008
By Stacy Straczynski
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software has a come a long way since the costly and inefficient first generation ASP models of the mid-90s. While these—and subsequent multi-tenant CRM models—introduced the industry's basic turnkey applications, user options and data remained limited to the vendor and left users longing for a better solution. Enter CRM's next phase—the full on-demand service portal.
Since December 2007, Cupertino, Calif.-based SugarCRM, Inc., a provider of commercial open source CRM software, has boasted its new Sugar 5.0 solution. With a spectrum of new features and a fully-customizable interface, Sugar 5.0 is a prime example for the continued progression of CRM software.
The Sugar 5.0 model lends itself to the user-friendly and customizable interface trends of corporate and social sectors by utilizing "multi-instance" applications. As opposed to preceding multi-tenant SaaS models that merged vendor and provider in a single database, multi-instance allows for deeper customization, faster deployment and data flexibility. Users can make all data displays—including dashboards, charts and graphs—individual to their experience.
"Sugar 5.0 fills out the remaining gaps in traditional CRM as a knowledge base and a self-service portal," says SugarCRM Senior Manager of Product Management Martin Schneider.
The real gemstone of Sugar 5.0 is the product's module builder, according to Schneider. He explains that users can create customized and company-specific applications without the need for any hard-coding. It allows for maximum user-friendliness while addressing the advanced customization needs that many companies have. "Anyone can take [Sugar 5.0] out of the box and meet their marketing and sales needs." Schneider says.
Another great option is that Sugar 5.0 not only lets users deploy their newly created module-builder applications across the entire company for wide-spread use, but it also gives users the ability to monetize their applications by selling them through Sugar's Web 2.0 content community. "It's a human interaction platform rather than a base CRM program," says Schneider.
Other features of Sugar 5.0 include: the maintenance of data ownership; individual instance per user for maximum security; automatic upgrades that users can choose to accept or decline; AJAX e-mail client; and free staging and testing servers. Multiple homepages and interactive charts that automatically update add to individual's benefits.
For more information or to download a free trial of Sugar 5.0, visit www.sugarcrm.com.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
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