CRM Companies 2009: SugarCRM

I have to presume you know who SugarCRM is. But if you don’t, they are the most successful (by far) open source CRM platform. They have a lot going for them. They have a smart business model - one that engages a 30,000 plus developers community called the Sugar Network (which appropos of nothing, is also the name of a network of 16 entertainment and beauty properties for women) to develop on the core platform. They are open source but they are not free when it comes to licenses. There is a free basic edition, but if you want functionality and tools worth anything you will buy either their on premise or on demand versions - which are competitively priced, though not exceptionally so. In the past, I thought they were overpriced and in fact, with “The Cube,” their standalone server solution - they were - though it seems to be a little better now. They have a savvy CEO in John Roberts, who while he isn’t the best rock singer in the world (kidding, just kidding….) is a great CEO and very smart business dude. They’ve made some really great hires, for example, Martin Schneider, a former analyst for the 451 Group and a brilliant one at that, who ostensibly handles analyst relations for them but does so much more (and is a damn good rock guitar player). They have a rather fluid corporate culture that really lives the “open source” way and doesn’t hassle too much about things yet is still accountable for success in business. With their recent release of the SugarCRM 5.2 platform, they overcame their glaring lack of social features by adding a small set of social feeds and what they call Portal Dashlets, which is basically a treacly name for enterprise mashup widgets - something being offered by SAP, Microsoft and many other vendors too. What’s most interesting is that they are offering “cloud connectors” which are hooks to any feeds of a LinkedIn, Jigsaw or Hoovers nature - in other external data sources to provide what would be a richer look at competitive intelligence. These are the technical links, not the actual feeds to any one of them. Finally, they’ve added Sugar Feeds which is a Twitter like (really more Yammer-like or SAP ESME-ish) way of interacting inside SugarCRM applications - and provides status, alerts, and notifications. All in all, a good start, though, of course, a long way to go. These make SugarCRM a company to be watching with a more intense look in 2009 than you might have in 2008. Where I still have some concerns with SugarCRM are that they are competing now as much as a platform as they are a CRM application suite and which one is the focus they want to give is not entirely clear. Their market message gets mixed sometimes, though they seem to lean to flexible CRM suite. I think. Also they have a partner program, that while miles better than it was a year ago, is still not competitive with their competitors. They have a ways to go and they will have to expend a considerable effort in building that, now that they will be oh-so-much-more-appealing due to the economic downturn. Otherwise, I can’t complain. Open source gets really interesting in economic downturns but I have to put a caveat here - its really interesting as a possible option, but it not only isn’t free, its not that cheap either. Just reasonable. SugarCRM’s competition? Maybe VTiger and Concursive….there are several others but I don’t see them as all that competitive - at least not as of yet. VTiger comes to you from Zoho/Adventnet so they have some market smarts and reach. But no one outreaches SugarCRM in open source. This is a company that has made huge strides in the last two years and gone from me occasionally glancing at them during 2007 to, as 2009 begins, staring at them. Time to pay very, very serious attention.

Source:blogs.zdnet.com/crm

CRM News: iPod: iPod, Rivals Fight for Position on Holiday Wish Lists

Give me five!

Websites: get online or get left behind
VNUNet.com - Nov 16, 2006
Of course, many donot. But as businesses of all shapes and sizes embrace the internet to promotetheir services and sell their goods, why would they want an accountant orbusiness adviser who is obviously living in the dark ages?Many businesses today are grappling with the challenges and opportunities ofhaving an effective web presence. They are creating online stores withintegration into the accounting and stock system, and some form of CRM system. Who is going to give them the best business advice: the accountant whounderstands it all, or the accountant who won’t even use the internet to promotetheir practice?The answer is obvious and those accountants too busy to do any marketing, orable to rely on referrals, should take a look at the quality and type of workthey are gaining. Some firms are increasingly becoming interested in the‘business advice’ market, where recovery rates of 120% to 140% are the norm. By relying on referrals for business, you are actually – probably unwittingly– allowing them to decide how your business develops. Bank managers are likelyto refer business to the most appropriate accountancy firm... Your website should communicate basic information about your firm – who youare, what you do, where you are located. If you are a sole trader and specialisein a particular type of work, include case studies on the site and be preparedto keep it up to date. So, how much will all this cost? Well, Microsoft will soon launch a freeservice, but you will need to do much of the work yourself. The IAAITC offers aservice for members, which costs about £200 per year for both the email and webservices and provides a library of content for the firm to work with. David Reynolds is chief executive of the.
http://www.vnunet.com/articles/print/2169176

CRM News: iPod: iPod, Rivals Fight for Position on Holiday Wish Lists
CRM Buyer - Nov 20, 2006
CRM Buyer features CRM product information, reviews and comparisons. It is an independent source updated each day.
http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/Ls9blY5lMQtgA4/iPod-Rivals-Fight-for-Position-on-Holiday-Wish-Lists.xhtml

SugarCRM supports full open-source stack
InfoWorld - Nov 16, 2006
But should any customer support issue require escalation, the vendor has strong relationships in place with MySQL and with BitRock S, which provides installation technology and second-tier support for both Apache and PHP. Oram also noted that SugarCRM has been supporting Red Hat Inc. 's Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP in its Sugar Appliance, a dedicated device that runs its CRM applications, for the past two years. SugarCRM intends to extend FastStack to support the other major Web server it supports, Microsoft Corp. 's Internet Information Server (IIS), and the two other databases the CRM applications run on -- Microsoft's SQL Server and Oracle Corp. 's eponymous offering -- within the next six months, according to Oram. FastStack is available for download from SugarCRM's Web site for a one-time fee of US$499 for customers who are also purchasing either Sugar Professional On-Site or Sugar Enterprise On-Site.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/06/11/16/HNsugarcrmopensource_1.html

Bidding for Software's Hall of Fame
Motley Fool - Nov 17, 2006
" In fact, there is no other software firm its size -- about $500 million in annual revenues -- growing as fast. It's certainly a testament to the company's unique approach to selling and delivering business software. In the third quarter, revenues surged 57% to $130 million. Net income was $339,000, or breakeven on a per-share basis, which compares to a net profit of $13... For next year, the company expects revenues of $700 million to $710 million. Despite all the good news, the big concern is: Can Salesforce. com continue to grow over the long term? Well, keep in mind that the company is much more than just a CRM player. It's building a highly scalable on-demand platform, with major deployments from companies like Cisco (Nasdaq:.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2006/11/17/bidding-for-softwares-hall-of-fame.aspx

Accounting Firms Grow By Needs, Regions & Mergers
Accountingweb.com - Nov 20, 2006
Microsoft� Forecaster is an affordable way to customize your budgeting and planning to give you the control you need to manage your business' performance. As soon as you enter a number, it's available for analysis, allowing you to see how it impacts revenue and costs. This streamlined budgeting and planning solution helps decrease the chance for errors and miscommunication. And with Microsoft Forecaster, changes are easy to make. Even last-minute ones... Valerie Kozikowski told SearchCRM. com, �The new link and application from SugarCRM will be our mechanism to create a communication platform. In no way is it intended to be a full CRM system for alliance members to track customers. We are not handing them a full CRM solution and saying use that for your internal CRM purposes. � Kozikowski continued in SearchCRM. com, �We were looking for something with a very clean and simple user interface we could tailor without making a lot of changes. Because some of our needs are unique in that we�re connecting people who can be customers or referral sources, we needed a lot of flexibility.
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=102819&d=815&h=817&f=816&dateformat=%25B%20%25e,%20%25Y

Opportunity knocks for SMEs
VNUNet.com - Nov 22, 2006
The availability of hosted services is also making a difference to SMEs,bringing traditionally expensive enterprise-level applications within the reachof the smaller business. com has enjoyed a lot of success with its hosted customerrelationship management (CRM) offering, many other companies offering purelyhosted services have disappeared, says Ovum’s Masood. It is the traditional software companies, such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP,that are now making an impact by offering some of their services on a hostedbasis. These tend to be generic, rather than heavily customised. ‘People are becoming willing to sacrifice customisation to get somethinguseful,’ says Alastair McAulay, managing consultant at PA Consulting. A new development in hosted services is the entrance into the SME market ofnon-traditional players such as Amazon, which is offering an ecommerce platform,and Google, which is offering basic office functionality... com has enjoyed a lot of success with its hosted customerrelationship management (CRM) offering, many other companies offering purelyhosted services have disappeared, says Ovum’s Masood. It is the traditional software companies, such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP,that are now making an impact by offering some of their services on a hostedbasis. These tend to be generic, rather than heavily customised. ‘People are becoming willing to sacrifice customisation to get somethinguseful,’ says Alastair McAulay, managing consultant at PA Consulting. A new development in hosted services is the entrance into the SME market ofnon-traditional players such as Amazon, which is offering an ecommerce platform,and Google, which is offering basic office functionality. ‘Amazon is making ecommerce very accessible and easy,’ says McAulay.
http://www.vnunet.com/computing/analysis/2169296/opportunity-knocks-smes

Good luck!