Why We Like SugarCRM
Highland isn’t a software reseller shop. We do custom solutions.
So when we advocate a piece of software that we didn’t create, we feel a bit of obligation to justify our preference.
Any CRM worth its salt offers similar benefits to an organization. Why do we think SugarCRM is currently the best CRM to offer our clients? Here’s a peek into a bit of Highland history and our thoughts on the matter.
Five years ago, it became obvious to us that CRM was a recurring need among our development clients. We had built a few custom CRMs from scratch, but were looking for a solid building block we could use in our solutions so we could stop re-inventing the wheel.
We prefer open, flexible, low cost solutions, and those preferences drove our search process. After extensive research and getting our hands on several possible solutions, we began working with SugarCRM in 2005 as part of Sugar’s open source community. Since that time we’ve deployed Community and Professional Editions of SugarCRM for our clients, both as a stand-alone CRM solution and integrated into a larger web application deployment.
So why do we use SugarCRM instead of other offerings like Salesforce.com or Microsoft Dynamics? Without a full competitive breakdown, here are four quick reasons we’ve come to strongly prefer SugarCRM.
1. Ease of use
Sugar is fast and flexible, offers streamlined, smart web-browser views, and plays nice with Outlook and smartphones. Its AJAX-based web technology offers the snappy drag-and-drop capabilities users expect from current web applications. Ease of use means better user adoption, which is goal #1 in launching a CRM.
2. Friendly integration (at a reasonable cost)
Every system will tell you it can integrate with other systems. That’s probably true, but time and cost are critical. About a year ago, we proposed a CRM solution to a firm on the east coast who opted to go with a Dynamics solution instead. When we spoke again months later, they had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and still did not have a functional, integrated system.
Sugar offers two key advantages: standard, open web interfaces and an open licensing style. Proprietary systems like Microsoft make integration difficult by forcing every system to play by its rules. And products with tiered-licensing like Salesforce.com don’t open up their web interfaces until the highest tiers ($100+ per user per month). Sugar’s interfaces are open right out of the box.
3. Faster deployment (and ROI)
Our clients can often log into their CRM within 24 hours of ordering it. Customization, data loading and initial launch can happen within weeks. Sugar’s quick deployment and lower cost can yield ROI within just a few months.
4. Lower total cost of ownership
If you run the numbers (and we have), it just isn’t close. Even for simple deployments, Sugar is significantly less than other solutions. And if the deployment needs to integrate with other systems (either now or in the future), the cost savings is stunning. Sugar can come in at a fraction of the cost of other solutions.
Of course, as we say over and over again, the CRM itself is only half of the equation. Launching the CRM well is the tricky part and benefits from an experienced partner. Which is what we do.
Have your own thoughts on SugarCRM compared to other solutions on the market? Feel free to share below.
