SugarCRM Overview

SugarCRM (also called Sugar Sell) is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) tool that handles sales and marketing automation, customer support, analytics, and account management. Features like customizable homepages, a “wizard” tool that helps new users set up tasks and processes, and a shortcut bar make SugarCRM an intuitive and efficient CRM solution. Other features—like enhanced global search capabilities and downloadable reports and plugins—allow users to take advantage of all the customer data at their fingertips. 

SugarCRM’s open-source platform lets users create custom solutions that meet their business goals. It also integrates with various third-party systems while allowing you to develop your own modules using its built-in tools. Whether you run a Windows or Mac operating system, SugarCRM works flawlessly. Plus, it includes support for MySQL, SQL Server, Linux, and Oracle systems.

With its flexible mobile access options and offline client synchronization feature for always-on data updates, SugarCRM is the perfect choice for organizations that need either a cloud or on-premise solution. Despite its relatively high cost, its commitment to open source makes SugarCRM a solid choice for companies looking for an enterprise CRM solution.

SugarCRM is a cloud-based CRM platform businesses use to manage customer relationships. It helps companies automate sales, improve the customer experience, and increase efficiency. The platform’s open API allows for endless integrations, customizations, and regulatory compliance for any organization. The SugarCRM ecosystem comprises sales automation (Sugar Sell), marketing automation (Sugar Market), customer service (Sugar Serve), and on-premises CRM (Sugar Enterprise). Each of these elements come together to create a holistic CRM system that speeds up even the most complex sales cycles. 

Features include:

• Opportunities and leads modules
• Customer database
• AI analytics engine
• Developer tools
• API for integrations
• CRM dashboards and analytics
• Email marketing

Opportunities and Lead Modules: The Opportunities and Leads modules have a creative tile view option in addition to the standard list view. Though fewer records are visible on each page, that doesn’t mean the visual appeal is affected. Every card will show where it stands in a business cycle, as well as permit you to drag them around so you can move along with your process. Several other CRMs offer these sales pipelining and contact management abilities—but SugarCRM allows users to define processes beyond sales pipelines (e.g., service desk, webinar leads). This makes it a cut above the rest in this area.

Customer Database: The customer database is SugarCRM’s primary driver—it allows users to pull in data from contacts, accounts, and opportunities. It also comes complete with reporting features that are extremely useful for analyzing customer segmentation and buying trends. Coupled with its analytics engine, SugarCRM’s customer database enables users to quickly glean critical insights from an array of business and social data sets, then stay informed about integral accounts with alerts that arrive in real-time.

AI Analytics Engine: A standout feature of SugarCRM is its highly capable analytics engine, driven by AI. This engine is designed to help businesses take action in response to customer behavior and other insights it unearths from data sets. It can identify patterns and trends, anticipate outcomes, suggest best actions, and forecast future opportunities with high accuracy. Even with incomplete customer data, SugarPredict presents sales teams with complete analyses and valuable predictions for lead conversion, customer profiling (ICP) and opportunties.

Developer Tools: One of SugarCRM’s key advantages is its open API and integration options. This is especially useful for developers who want to customize the platform to fit their exact requirements. Developers can access SugarCRM’s API documentation and download several libraries, sample applications, and demonstration scripts that show how its REST API works. Additionally, the system has a library of SDKs and plugins that extend functionality between third-party apps and SugarCRM. 

API for Integrations: As mentioned, SugarCRM’s open API allows you to connect with any system and integrate it into the platform. It uses the same API that powers its own applications, so developers have access to a comprehensive library of tools they can use to customize their processes and workflows. This makes it easy to connect SugarCRM with any of the thousands of apps, cloud services, on-premises systems, or legacy applications in the marketplace.

CRM Dashboards and Analytics: SugarCRM’s dashlets offer far more than just dashboard building. Consider your product catalog for example, which can be made into a unique dashlet displaying all of the necessary data – such as descriptions, SKUs, prices, margins and other valuable information – to an opportunity record. The number of fields is larger compared to traditional CRMs we have tested priorly however not many are obligatory. You can easily modify the displayed fields or even create new ones with help from a specialized developer during installation rather than doing it on-the-go later down the line. Dashlets make it incredibly easy to visualize and analyze customer data, so your sales teams can take action quickly and accurately.

Email Marketing: Businesses that have dozens of activities (e.g., cold email send-outs, multiple marketing campaigns, customer service emails) can easily track and manage all of these actions using SugarCRM. You can connect your email accounts, create personalized emails in bulk, backup or restore emails with just a few clicks, and use macros to automate routine tasks. Additionally, you can identify the best prospects for each campaign by analyzing contact data with Sugar’s AI analytics engine.

Despite its cost and complexity, companies with the development and IT infrastructure to support it can find numerous advantages in SugarCRM. It’s an incredibly powerful CRM with a wide range of features, including:

• Endless Customizability: SugarCRM’s open API and library of plugins enable developers to customize the system to fit their unique requirements. For companies with the ability to manage and create customizations, this makes SugarCRM among the most feature-rich options.
• Predictive Analytics for Lead and Contact Management: SugarCRM leverages its powerful AI-driven analytics engine to compile customer data and map out trends and patterns in behavior. This helps sales teams prioritize the most promising leads, target the right prospects, and take action on potential opportunities with greater accuracy.
• Email Marketing Tools: Sugar Market’s email builder is designed to be mobile-friendly, so everyone can enjoy a seamless experience no matter what device or client they’re using. In addition, you can view live previews right in the app before sending out your campaigns and utilize pre-built themes and templates for quick setup. A/B testing of emails will also help you determine which version yields higher opens and conversion rates.
• Customer Experience on Autopilot: Sugar Serve provides organizations with the tools to interact with customers according to their preferences, equips employees with up-to-date crucial information, and heps companies fulfill all of their commitments as quickly as possible. Simultaneously, its customer feedback tools make it easy to identify customer pain points and optimize your service operations.
• Integrations with Third-Party Services: SugarCRM integrates with a wide range of popular services, such as HubSpot, QuickBooks, Shopify, Zendesk, Marketo, SalesLoft, and more. This helps businesses extend their functionality beyond what SugarCRM can offer and make it easy to send data between systems for added convenience. Any organization can use these integrations to optimize their workflow and keep everything in sync.
• Enterprise-Level Security: SugarCRM is committed to keeping customer data secure. All of its systems are GDPR, SOC II, CCPA, and ISO 27001 compliant, so your data will be kept safe and secure. Additionally, all communications are encrypted using TLS 1.6 protocols for extra protection. SugarCloud uses AWS worldwide—users can choose one of six regions to contain their data and ensure fast delivery.
• Mobile App: All SugarCRM users are allowed access to its mobile app, so they can manage their tasks and keep up with customer interactions on the go. Additional functionalities include everything from email campaign builders to customer segmentation tools. The app is available on both Android and iOS platforms, giving users access to their CRM data from any device.
• Sales and Marketing Automation: Repetitive and error-prone tasks like data entry, customer journey mapping, and email campaigns can be automated using SugarCRM. You can also build custom workflows with just a few clicks, and use macros to automate routine tasks. Additionally, you can identify the best prospects for each campaign by analyzing contact data with Sugar’s AI analytics engine.

Unlike some CRM tools, SugarCRM does not have a free version—its feature set restricts it to the enterprise level. Prices for SugarCRM scale up based on business needs in four separate tiers.

• Sell Essentials ($49 per month, 3 user minimum): The starter tier in SugarCRM’s product catalogue, Sell Essentials includes basic contact management, one-on-one engagement with customers, and the ability to collaborate on tasks. It also includes automated processes for lead scoring, sales forecasting, quota development, and marketing automation capabilities.
• Sell Advanced ($80 per month, 3 user minimum): This tier includes all the features of Sell Premier plus advanced reporting capabilities, sales performance tracking with coachable insights, and greater revenue visibility. Additionally, users can customize their own dashboards with advanced charts to quickly analyze data sets. 
• Sell Enterprise ($85 per month, 3 user minimum): Sell Enterprise has all the features of Sell Advanced, but offers an on-premise solution for businesses with sensitive data.
• Sell Premier ($135 per month, 10 user minimum): Sell Premier provides powerful automation capabilities for sales orgs with complex sales cycles, including built-in AI, advanced support, and extra storage. Intelligent lead prioritization, lead routing, and contact segmentation are also included.

SugarCRM doesn’t have a built-in CPQ tool, nor does it have one as an add-on. But it does integrate with several third-party CPQ solutions, including:

• DealHub CPQ
• QuoteWerks CPQ
• Ambit Software
• Mobileforce CPQ
• Vendavo CPQ

DealHub CPQ

DealHub CPQ is a robust CPQ software that features automated approval workflows, automated quote-to-cash (QTC) processes, and powerful analytics. On top of its rules-based pricing configuration platform, its digital sales room provides valuable insights into customer profiles and behaviors while unifying all stakeholders.

Integration with SugarCRM is a logical next step for DealHub and Sugar Sell users. Using both, the sales process is fluid—user data syncs across platforms and gives sales reps the information they need to sell effectively. On the prospect side, it keeps all stakeholders together and streamlines communication throughout the enterprise sales process.

QuoteWerks CPQ

QuoteWerks sales quoting and proposal software integrates with all versions of SugarCRM for a faster quote-to-cash process. With QuoteWerks, you can quickly and easily search the SugarCRM database for an associated Contact or Account to include in your quote. And you can seamlessly manage your sales pipeline by tracking quotes and orders in SugarCRM.
This integration helps businesses eliminate manual processes, such as cutting and pasting data from one system to another, allowing for faster time-to-quote and higher accuracy. Plus, QuoteWerks includes access to their Knowledgebase—over 1 million items of product data currently available in the system.

Ambit Software

Ambit Software’s CPQ add-on enables a CPQ function inside SugarCRM. Ambit’s CPQ is natively built on SugarCRM, allowing users to manage complex pricing via Price Lists and Price Books. Configuration and pricing rules such as bundling, kitting, and accessorizing ensure intra-bundle compatibility and prevent booking errors while maximizing revenues. Upsell and cross-sell recommendations are available to the sales team, so no opportunity is overlooked. Ambit also enables quick roll-outs of new products and pricing configurations locally and globally so sales reps consistently access the most up-to-date product and pricing information when generating quotes.

Mobileforce CPQ

Mobileforce CPQ’s native integration with SugarCRM so sales reps can easily access the CPQ module within SugarCRM’s User Interface and create proposals from the Opportunities module.

The Mobileforce CPQ UI is embedded and accessible directly from the SugarCRM UI, providing a consistent user experience. Sales reps can generate a Mobileforce CPQ quote or proposal directly from an existing SugarCRM Opportunity while Mobileforce populates the quote with the applicable Opportunity data. Once reps have completed a proposal or quote in Mobileforce CPQ, it is saved to SugarCRM and updates the associated Opportunity. This seamless workflow enables your company to reduce admin tasks related to generating quotes while ensuring error-free data sync between the CPQ and CRM.

Vendavo CPQ

Vendavo CPQ enables sales reps to create an opportunity within SugarCRM with a single click quickly. It syncs real-time quote and proposal data from the CPQ back into SugarCRM, giving revenue operations accurate pipeline and sales forecasts. Enterprise B2B sales teams use Vendavo CPQ’s powerful rules engine and visual configuration interface to quickly and accurately create and modify complex configurations. Guided selling workflows help sales reps configure products easily while ensuring the right products, upsells, and cross-sells, are presented to customers.

SugarCRM has a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars on Gartner Peer Insights. In their reviews, users are getting value from the software’s marketing automation and pipeline nurturing capabilities. However, some users mention that reports are difficult to set up and some legacy features need an update.

The reviewers and customer demographics are as follows:

Reviewer’s Company Size

• <$50M: 61%
• $50M-$1B: 27%
• $1B-$10B: 6%
• $10B+: 3%
• Gov’t/PS/Ed: 3%

Reviewer’s Industry

• IT Services: 24%
• Services (non-Government): 19%
• Miscellaneous: 9%
• Software: 7%
• Other: 41%

Reviewer’s Deployment Region

• North America: 63%
• Asia/Pacific: 17%
• Europe, Middle East, and Africa: 16%
• Latin America: 5%

Gartner Peer Insights affirms that SugarCRM helps users track and manage leads and provides good customer support.

Andrew Parker

Andrew is a professional copywriter with expertise in creating content focused on business-to-business (B2B) software. He conducts research and produces articles that provide valuable insights and information to his readers.

SugarCRM Overview

• 1Why this product is good
• 2Product Details
• 3What are the advantages of using SugarCRM?
• 4Prices
• 5CPQ Integrations
• 6Valuable Insight From Real Customers