SugarCRM Review

SugarCRM
Product:
Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:
SugarCRM
SugarCRM
2004
Cupertino, CA
Ownership:
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:
Private
2 million users
Cloud, On-Premise
Yes

SugarCRM At A Glance

Good: Ability to collect prospect data from different sources without manual intervention, inbound marketing functionality, business process management tools that automate workflows.
Bad: Interface isn't always user friendly, Sugar Sell module has limited reporting.
Bottom Line: Customer experience platform that enables sales, marketing and support teams to work together more efficiently.

Product Overview

SugarCRM is a customer experience (CX) platform that helps organizations provide better service to their customers. It has three modules that integrate with one another, so all users have access to updated customer information and can work on their tasks more efficiently. Each module is deployed in the cloud, but SugarCRM offers on-premise options for companies that have complex requirements.

The three modules are:

  • Sugar Sell, which is intended for sales teams
  • Sugar Market, which helps the marketing team generate and nurture leads, and
  • Sugar Serve, which is geared toward customer support teams.

We discuss each module in our Features section below.

In addition to the three modules, there’s SugarBPM, a business process management solution that gives administrators the ability to create custom automated workflows, especially for complex processes. Users can create specific workflows with the visual design interface and set up email, desktop or mobile alert notifications.

Features

Sugar Sell – While Sugar Sell has numerous common features (e.g., lead management, account management, reporting), we’ll focus on several key ones.

First, there’s Sugar Hint, a feature that collects data on prospects from a variety of sources with just a name and email address. It then automatically pulls data into the CRM, which frees sales reps from any manual research. Sugar Hint also guides reps on the frequency, timing and message of each email to a contact.

There’s also Sugar Connect, which integrates the module with Office 365 and Google Apps. It stores relevant prospect information within the rep’s preferred email client, so they can send personalized messages or meeting invites.

Another Sugar Sell feature is sales forecasting, which enables sales managers to compare their reps’ performance against their quotas and adjust those quotas if needed. They can also use the what-if function for predicting best-case or worst-case scenarios. Additionally, the quote management feature includes a drag-and-drop interface for creating quotes. Reps can export the quote into a PDF and send them to prospects. Note that this feature supports multiple currencies.

Finally, there’s a new feature called Sugar Discover that provides business intelligence functionality to help the sales team get actionable insights into their performance. Sugar Discover comes with built-in metrics, analytics and KPIs, so no one needs to build a database or learn any complicated BI tools. It combs through extensive historical data for any trends, allowing users to better predict future performance based on the past. Sugar Discover also provides root cause analysis for any of its findings and alerts users of any significant changes in the data so that they can take action.

Sugar Market – Sugar Market includes inbound marketing functionality, so marketers can generate leads via organic search and social media. There’s a built-in SEO audit that ranks web pages based on several factors, such as page speed, inbound links and mobile performance.

Sugar Market integrates with Google Ads so that marketers can create and track paid search campaigns. They can also create targeted campaigns for all stages of the funnel, such as landing pages, emails, forms and surveys. Each campaign can be set up within minutes, and there’s no coding involved.

Once the lead’s generated, Sugar Market assigns it with a lead score that’s based on engagement (e.g., opening an email, downloading an asset). Marketers can customize the lead scoring models per their business needs. Qualified leads can be passed onto the sales team with a single click.

Lastly, marketers can track each campaign’s performance with dashboards and custom reporting tools.

Sugar Serve – With this module, Single Serve gives customer support teams a service console to monitor inbound issues from multiple channels (e.g., phone, email, social media). The console includes any relevant context for each issue, so support agents can act on it quickly. Customer service managers can use the console for measuring case statuses, agent availability and other factors. They can also set up routing rules so that specific customer issues are automatically assigned to a particular agent. This feature is especially beneficial for companies that have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in place with their customers, as those customers can be prioritized (e.g., IT support for software issues).

Sugar Serve also has a self-service portal that companies can use for setting up a knowledge base, FAQs, step-by-step guides and other resources for their customers. With the portal, customers can get the answers they need, and the company can reduce support costs and labor time.

Target Market

SugarCRM targets small, medium and large companies in many different industries. It has over two million users in 120 countries. We’ve listed 10 of its clients below.

  • ACTenviro
  • Carolina Industrial Trucks
  • Crown & Caliber
  • Fordham University
  • Lomas Travel
  • Materion
  • Military AutoSource
  • Savoye
  • Star2Star Communications
  • Tyson Foods

Implementation/Integration

New clients work with SugarCRM’s Projects team on the implementation process. The specific steps and timeline of the project varies based on a client’s needs. SugarCRM also partners with a network of companies that provide custom configuration and integration.

Customer Service & Support

Users can access the support portal to browse articles, get product updates, participate in a community forum and submit ticket requests.

SugarCRM offers training via its Sugar University program, which has both free and paid online courses.

Pricing

The Sugar Sell and Sugar Serve modules each start at $80 per user, per month (billed annually) and require a minimum of 10 users.  The subscription includes two sandbox instances, phone support, 60 GB of storage and four support-authorized contacts. The Sugar Market module starts at $1,000 per month for up to 10,000 contacts (billed annually) and includes unlimited users, unlimited emails, phone support and four support-authorized contacts.

For companies that want to deploy SugarCRM on-premise, the Sugar Professional solution starts at $52 per user, per month (billed annually) and requires a minimum of 10 users. It includes standard support SLAs, the support portal and two support-authorized contacts. Another on-premise option is Sugar Enterprise, which starts at $85 per user, per month (billed annually) and also requires a minimum of 10 users. It has additional features, such as SugarBPM, SQL-based reporting, accelerated support SLAs, the support portal, phone support and four support-authorized contacts.

Shortcomings

Some users have mentioned that the interface isn’t always intuitive and looks dated. Also, the Sugar Sell module has limited reporting functionality.

Screenshots

SugarCRM Screenshot 1
SugarCRM Screenshot 2
SugarCRM Screenshot 3

About

SugarCRM helps organizations provide an outstanding experience for their customers, especially in anticipating customers’ needs. Its solutions enable the sales, marketing and customer service teams to focus on providing great customer service rather than manual processes. SugarCRM’s core values are innovation, integrity, value and passion.

SugarCRM has received many awards, such as the Forbes Cloud 100 List (2016) and the CRN Channel Chief (2017). It’s headquartered in Cupertino (CA) and has offices in Atlanta, New York City, Raleigh (NC), London, Munich, Sydney and Mexico City.

Send feedback or corrections to feedback@betterbuys.com.

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