SugarCRM Unveils Sugar 5.0

August 28, 2007; 07:31 AM
SugarCRM Inc., the world’s leading provider of commercial open source customer relationship management (CRM) software, today announced the beta release of Sugar 5.0, the fastest-growing CRM solution in the market today.  Sugar 5.0 introduces a broad range of new functionality, including capabilities that allow users to build custom modules, a new AJAX email client and a state-of-the-art ‘Multi-Instance On-Demand’ architecture.

“This release allows customers to break away from the predatory lock-in of proprietary CRM vendors,” said John Roberts, CEO of SugarCRM. “Sugar 5.0 expands the proven Sugar platform with advanced CRM functionality, on-the-fly module creation, and a new On-Demand architecture to help our thousands of users become even more successful.”

“Sugar 5.0 delivers the CRM platform and features that will differentiate us from the competition.” said Jorge Teixeira da Silva, Customer Service Manager at UZO, the mobile arm of Portugal Telecom, a seven billion dollar multi-national telecommunica­tions conglomerate with operations in Europe, Africa and Latin America.  “SugarCRM’s commitment to innovation and quality gives us the chance to rethink how best to manage our most important asset – our customers.”

Sugar 5.0 introduces innovative features across four key areas: Platform, CRM Functionality, On-Demand Architecture, and Community Development.
 
Platform

Sugar 5.0 introduces a range of platform enhancements which enhance the ability to build, customize, scale, and upgrade the application. Key functionality enhancements include:

    * New Module Builder enables users to build custom modules from scratch or combine existing or custom objects into a brand new CRM module. For example, recruiters could create a Recruiting module by combining a custom object for employment candidates with the existing contacts view to better manage the hiring process. Or, a financial planner could create a ‘Client Details’ custom module that reveals personalized information about each client for better management and follow-up of client relationships. Users can build an unlimited number of custom modules, which interoperate seamlessly with Reporting, Workflow, Sugar Studio tools and are upgrade-safe.

    * New Metadata Driven User Interface (UI) stores customizations in a metadata repository. The Metadata Driven UI combines the benefits of custom CRM with the ability to easily incorporate new features in future releases.

    * Improved Access Control offers better support for team hierarchies and access control functions that manage and protect information at the field level.

 
CRM Functionality

Following the release of Multi-Channel Marketing, Project Management, Knowledge Base and Customer Self-Service Portal earlier this year, Sugar 5.0 introduces the following functionality:

    * New AJAX Email Client delivers the functionality of a desktop email client with the portability of a web-based email application. The new Email Client features tight integration with Sugar’s Sales Force Automation functionality and offers state-of-the-art design, including drag-and-drop capabilities, search, keyboard shortcuts, rules wizard, and support for folders, contacts, and personal inboxes. Interoperability with all leading email servers allows the Email Client to complement or replace existing email clients.

    * Improved Dashboards with new charting capabilities, including support for funnel, pie charts, line and bar graphs and performance gauge chart objects.

    * Multiple Dashboards on Homepage allows users to access any number of pre-built or custom dashboards from their homepage. Users can easily add, edit, share, rearrange or remove dashboards with a few simple clicks.

 
On-Demand Architecture

In conjunction with the release of Sugar 5.0, SugarCRM is proud to unveil its new On-Demand architecture. SugarCRM’s multi-instance architecture takes advantage of horizontal scale-out capabilities of open source software platforms, significant increases in processing power of commodity hardware and systems management software developed by SugarCRM to eliminate the tradeoffs between deep customization and upgradeability associated with previous generations of On-Demand CRM.

Key benefits include:

    * Multi-Instance – Each customer receives their own On-Demand instance for maximum security, flexibility and control.
    * Automatic Upgrades – Customers can be automatically upgraded to new versions of Sugar or control when to upgrade.
    * Staging and Testing – Customers can develop new functionality on test servers and then move into production.
    * Deployment Flexibility – Customers can move between Sugar On-Site and Sugar On-Demand at any time.

 
“We chose Sugar because it reduces risk for our company and our customers,” said BJ Lackland, Chief Financial Officer of Power Efficiency Corporation, a green energy technology company focused on electric motor efficiency. “Our ability to move from Sugar On-Site to Sugar On-Demand over night demonstrates Sugar’s flexibility and responsiveness to customer needs.”


Community Development

Sugar 5.0 eases the process by which community members and partners can build, certify, share and sell applications on Sugar Forge and Sugar Exchange. The adoption of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3 for Sugar Community Edition, combined with the new Module Builder framework, allows non-technical users to create, publish and share modules across Sugar deployments.

The ability of technical and non-technical users to collaborate and co-create applications using SugarCRM technology will accelerate the growth of an already vibrant open source community. Since the founding of the Sugar Open Source project in 2004, the application has been downloaded over 1,200,000 times and localized into more than 75 languages. More than 10,000 developers have developed over 400 extensions for Sugar Forge, SugarCRM’s open source development destination. Since its release in October 2006, Sugar Exchange has grown to over 260 listings from 75 providers in nearly 40 product categories.
 
“SugarCRM’s adoption of the GPL for Community Edition combined with the ability of non-technical people to create their own modules will unleash a tidal wave of innovation in the Sugar Community,” said Greg Soper, Managing Director of SalesAgility.com, a UK provider of CRM solutions.  “Users are no longer dependent on a vendor’s product roadmap. If you need new functionality, you can simply create and share the exact functionality you need.”

 
Sugar 5.0 Beta and General Availability

The Beta release of Sugar 5.0 will be available later this week at www.sugarcrm.com.

 

The general availability release of Sugar Community Edition, Sugar Professional and Sugar Enterprise, will be available towards the end of September at www.sugarcrm.com.

 
About SugarCRM

SugarCRM is the world’s leading provider of commercial open source customer relationship management (CRM) software for companies of all sizes. SugarCRM easily adapts to any business environment by offering a more flexible, cost-effective alternative than proprietary applications. SugarCRM’s open source architecture allows companies to more easily customize and integrate customer-facing business processes in order to build and maintain more profitable relationships. SugarCRM offers several deployment options, including on-demand, on-premise and appliance-based solutions to suit customers’ security, integration and configuration needs.

For more information, call (408) 454-6900 or 1 877 SUGARCRM tollfree in the US, email [email protected], or visit http://www.sugarcrm.com.