On October 26, Microsoft is coming out with a new version of their Office suite for Mac. Apple’s one sore spot with business has long been the inability to run Outlook. Instead, Apple’s office email application was Entourage. Data was never easily transferred from Outlook to Entourage. Now information will run seamlessly from PC Outlook to Mac Outlook. The look is very similar to the PC version. And the speed is better.
Sugar and Outlook…
SugarCRM Outlook Plugin
A perk of SugarCRM is it’s sync or “archive to” SugarCRM button in Outlook. That nifty button was never available in Entourage, a downside for Sugar users on Mac machines. Will the new Outlook for Mac encourage Sugar to develop a plug-in for Mac users? We can only speculate.
SugarCRM is a fast growing CRM software. A lot of people start using Sugar because there’s a free version, Community Edition (SugarCE). SugarCE is not hosted by Sugar. It’s a download version that lives on your server, in other words, it’s not web based. SugarCE is limited in functionality compared to the paid and optionally hosted versions, Sugar Professional and Sugar Enterprise.
Sugar Community can do a lot, don’t get me wrong. But some of the things it does not do that Pro and Enterprise do are…
Sales forecasting, contracts, quotes, marketing reports, customizable dashboard, support and a knowledge base, custom reports, plug ins for Microsoft Outlook, Excel and Word, work flow automation rules, reminders and alerts, mobile editions (because it’s a hosted, offline client).
SugarCE is a great way to get into a CRM product, but beware, there can be a lot of IT work to get it up and running. Community Edition can also be easily converted to Sugar Pro or Enterprise. There is a wizard to convert the data that works well.
For a full comparison of the 3 sugar editions, Community, Professional and Enterprise, check out the data sheet below.
SugarCRM is taking on Salesforce.com with a version of its service and software package that can be customized by partners: Sugar Platform Edition.
Platform Edition, lets OEMs, service providers, and independent software vendors tailor the Professional or Enterprise versions of its PHP suite and re-package them as part of their own offerings.
SugarCRM has also announced Sugar Logic, a set of development tools to customize its PHP-based suite.
Larry Augustin, SugarCRM’s chief executive, said in a statement the OEM edition would serve a growing partner base. This version means potentially shorter development time and faster and easier upgrade for those hanging on the suite.
“Sugar Platform Edition allows our growing OEM partner base to bring the power of flexible, intuitive and open software like Sugar to a vastly underserved market,” said Larry Augustin, chief executive officer of SugarCRM. “It is a great win-win scenario: customers receive best-in-class software while our OEM partners build a profitable and repeatable business.”
Unlike Salesforce, which can only be deployed on a proprietary cloud database, partners can run SugarCRM on Sugar’s own hosted platform, on their own services, on the Amazon cloud, or on Microsoft’s Azure cloud. Or – if they’re old school – partners can install Sugar on-site, as it also comes as a boxed product.
Salesforce.com is clearly in SugarCRM’s cross-hairs.
A key difference between customizing Sugar and Salesforce is the openness of the code: Sugar is built using PHP, but Salesforce uses the company’s own, proprietary Apex programming language which runs only on the Salesforce platform.
BrainSell and Sugar hosted a webinar last week: “Creating a Winning CRM Initiative With Sugar 6.” BrainSell customer Insource Performance Solutions did a great Q&A on why they switched from Salesforce.com to SugarCRM.
Part 1: Intro and Sugar 6 reveal with Sugar’s Director of Marketing, Martin Schneider
Part 2: BrainSell’s Sugar Practice Manager, Kevin Cook, delves into the differences between Salesforce.com, another CRM application that many businesses try.
Part 3: A live interview with BrainSell customer Insource Performance Solutions, who switched from Salesforce.com to Sugar.
One of the big concerns many CRM users have is storage. Both Sugar and Salesforce.com limit the amount of data a company can store when they host on-demand to 1GB of data.
All three companies allow you to purchase additional storage.
Sales Force Data storage is $300 extra per 50MB per MONTH *
Sugar Data Storage is $200 extra per 1GB per YEAR no matter what kind of data
SalesLogix Cloud = 50 cents per month, per GB
Of course with Sugar and SalesLogix you always have the option to host it yourself, in which case there are no storage limits. SFDC has no option to host the application yourself.
*Note that Salesforce.com charges two separate data storage fees. $250 per GB per month for FILE storage (documents, pictures) and $300 per month per 50 MB per month for general data storage (notes and other organic info).
Salesforce.com is delivered solely as a SaaS offering. On the surface, there is only a simple, monthly subscription fee levied on a per-user basis. Salesforce Contact Manager and Group Edition are not considered as they cannot be used by more than five users. Salesforce’s subscription model means that these fees are charged annually. The breakdown of subscription list prices for the various Salesforce.com CRM editions is as follows:
Edition
Monthly per user costs
Annual costs per user
Professional
$65
$780
Enterprise
$125
$1500
Unlimited
$250
$3000
Hidden Costs
Salesforce.com offering also have some hidden charges. For example, adding mobile access to the CRM system for users of Group, Professional and Enterprise editions costs an additional $50 per user, per month. Also, integration capabilities to popular products from technology providers such as SAP or Oracle can cost $12,000 a year. Remember, these additional prices are not one-time server fees— they are annual fees that must be paid each year in order to access your data and CRM system in the manner you see fit.
SugarCRM Pricing
SugarCRM is offered under a subscription model, similar to Salesforce.com, but with some important differences. The subscription fee is inclusive of maintenance, but also includes mobile access, customization and integration capabilities. In short, SugarCRM aims to limit the “hidden fees” that some CRM providers do not include in their base license costs. In addition, Sugar can be deployed either as an On-Demand or SaaS deployment, or on the user’s own servers. Sugar is priced the same, regardless of deployment option.
Sugar comes in two editions: Professional and Enterprise.
Edition
Monthly per user costs
Annual costs per user
Professional
$30
$360
Enterprise
$50
$600
Again, SugarCRM’s subscription fees are inclusive of basic support, maintenance, as well as mobile user access and complete access to integration tool kits.
Being ever so timely, SugarCRM announced their iPad application at SugarCon this past April. As a devoted Apple fanatic, I have to say, this adds a major cool-factor to Sugar.
The app is fully customizable and it looks pretty ridiculous.
Some big highlights…
Quick view display: shows the most urgent opportunities, important contacts, and upcoming meetings.
Customizable modules screen:Users can drag-and-drop their favorite SugarCRM modules to easily organize the application according to their needs.
Data synchronization:Keep contacts and other information synced between the iPad and the cloud.
Easy drill-down: Quickly access important customer information that is most relevant while on-the-road.
The iPad is awesome, but let’s not forget it’s little brother, iPhone, which is outfitted with similar functionality.
Sugar’s CEO Larry Augustine spoke about the new release at Sugarcon…
“We’re pleased to announce a native application of Sugar on the iPad,” noted Larry Augustin, CEO, SugarCRM. “The ultra-portability and groundbreaking iPad user experience that is made possible for us as a web-based business by Appcelerator fits perfectly with the extensible SugarCRM architecture that can scale across multiple platforms. We believe that our mobile workforce customers will benefit greatly from the enhanced capabilities that this new platform offers.”
Overall, it looks like a very handy little piece of technology.
PCMag.com released a review of SugarCRM 6 on Tuesday and it looks pretty delish. They gave the new version (due for release on July 1) 4 out of 5, or “very good.”
Some highlights…
“The new version includes a much cleaner home screen that focuses more on current processes and workflow. It utilizes a combination of AJAX and other recent Web development capabilities. The rest of SugarCRM’s package remains as powerful as ever.”
Sugar Includes More Than Others
“It’s important to note that both paid packages include many built-in features that cost extra on other services. One example is forecasting, which lets you track how your individual salespeople have updated their projected results over the course of a given quarter. To get this with Salesforce.com…you have to pony up for the Enterprise version, which costs $125 per user per month—over four times what SugarCRM costs.”
Improved Workflow
“SugarCRM works hard to keep your main view uncluttered. The new task-driven home page focuses on upcoming calls, meetings, and opportunities, while a feed on the right shows current activity within the system. Search results appear in overlays, instead of on separate browser pages. Mouse over each module, and a pop-up will open that goes into more detail.”
Logging Calls Is A Breeze
“If a customer call comes in while you’re working on something else, click Log Call, and an overlay drops down that lets you attach new information to the contact on the phone, without losing the data you were originally working on somewhere else in the app.”
Purchasing and implimenting a CRM system can be a daunting task. Sometimes you can buy directly from the software vendor and other times you can buy through a Value Added Reseller (VAR). BrainSell President Jim Ward addressed the topic of who to buy from as a guest blogger on the Sales Opperation Blog this week.
Jim focused on the pros and cons of buying direct and buying from a VAR. Here are some of his points in short… to read the entire post, visit Marci Reynolds’ Sales Opperation Blog.
Definitions:
Direct Sales: A direct sales model for a CRM software vendor means the vendor employs their own sales force and you do business directly with the vendor.
Value Added Reseller (VAR): When buying through a VAR you’re buying through a company certified to resell the vendor’s software. VARs offer additional services such as training, development, consulting and implementation to add “value” (the “V” in VAR) to the sale.
2010 SugarCon speaker Jan Sysmans, Director of Product Marketing at SugarCRM, made a very compelling SugarCRM vs. Salesforce argument. Below are some of his points.
SugarCRM’s Flexibility is Superior
* With SugarCRM, you can… easy drag and drop UI for customization. Create your own integrations in PHP (open language) – Salesforce has a proprietary language (NOT open source).
* SugarCRM has… 5,000+ integrations with other applications – Salesforce has under 1,000
* SugarCRM has no limitations to the number of custom modules and work flow – Salesforce DOES have limits
* Sugar Pro comes with Free Mobile (read and write). Salesforce.com charges extra for read/write mobile. Their free mobile is read-only.
With SugarCRM, you get more Control
* With SugarCRM, every customer has their own database – Salesforce users share one multi-tenant database.
* SugarCRM does weekly database backups with object relationships intact – Salesforce only does monthly backups without object relationships (they’ll charge you if you want to back up more frequently)
* With SugarCRM, you’re free to deploy on-demand or on-site or virtual private cloud and easily move your deployment from on-demand to on-site – Salesforce is locked into a Salesforce data center – that’s not very nice.
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