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SugarCRM - 10 out of 10
Updated May 30, 2018

SugarCRM - 10 out of 10

Peter Fletcher | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Sugar Corporate

Modules Used

  • All

Overall Satisfaction with SugarCRM

We have worked with Sugar for many clients ranging in size from 2 to over 300 CRM Users.

Sugar is extremely flexible and cost effective compared to its competitors like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.

Sugar covers the whole customer life cycle from Lead through Sales and on-going Support and Marketing. It is easy to use and has many features like in-line editing that keep Clicks to a minmum. Most tasks can be one with two or three clicks.

Sugar Mobile gives a very strong mobile app to give users complete flexibility whether at their desk or in the field.

  • Sugar gives full account and contact visibility so any member of the organisation can have a full and accurate view of all related activities, products install, contracts in place and much more. It gives the proverbial One View.
  • Dashboards are one of the strongest parts of Sugar giving each user their own view of the way they can and want to interact with the customer. The dashboards are a key feature in that they are very easy to customize so that each user has a personal view with tasks, data views etc. appropriate to their role. Customizing these dashboards by role is also very easy. No coding is required, it is largely a matter of dragging and dropping fields.
  • Sugar's Forecasting Module makes the forecasting process quick and easy by using the Opportunities already created by the Sales Team. It also provides great individual feedback to the Team regarding YTD & QTD performance against Quota.
  • Sugar Mobile is a very strong mobile app for IOS and Android that is both easy to use and comprehensive. I t can be used both of-line and on-line mode.
  • With Version 8, there's not much Sugar can't do for us. With Plug-ins for most extra requirements that Sugar doesn't deliver at no/very low cost it's easy to build/deliver what we really need.
  • S
  • Superior customer service, low cost of marketing, low cost of quote/contract management, low cost of ownership with minimal IT overhead
  • Another key metric is time to productivity. The Sugar system is so easy to setup and learn that, provided there are no data issues, the system can be up and running and providing real value within a week.
  • Sugar's ability to build/deploy to both Mobile and Browser directly from Sugar Studio reduces both development and maintenance costs substantially. This contributes to Sugar's extremely low TCO.
  • Sugar Unviversity offers free video training courses for both Technical and End Users to ensure that you get the productivity gains and lower implementation costs that you want from Sugar.
Sugar is easier to deploy and use with much a better TCO than Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. It is much easier to use than its competition, in general, bothe from an end user and an administration viewpoint. It's very simple Licensing Model is easy to understand being user based and including all the tools and Sugar Mobile for a single dollar figure. No extra costs for things like API usage, Workflow tools, Microsoft Office integraition.
Sugar is an excellent product that covers the CRM needs for most organisations, large or small. Its low cost, flexibility and ease of use make it stand out in a very cluttered market. For mobile teams, Sugar Mobile is a free IOS/Android App that is superb.

Ease of customisation and administration mean our clients can control their own destiny if they wish to. This ease of use helps significantly reduce Sugar's TCO sine external consultants are not required to make the system changes that Clients want on a regular basis.

Sugar Sell (SugarCRM) Feature Ratings

9.7
Customer data management / contact management
10
Workflow management
10
Territory management
7
Opportunity management
10
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)
10
Contract management
10
Quote & order management
10
Interaction tracking
10
Channel / partner relationship management
10
9.3
Case management
10
Call center management
9
Help desk management
9
9.0
Lead management
10
Email marketing
8
10.0
Task management
10
Reporting
10
10.0
Forecasting
10
Pipeline visualization
10
Customizable reports
10
10.0
Custom fields
10
Custom objects
10
Scripting environment
10
API for custom integration
10
10.0
Role-based user permissions
10
Single sign-on capability
10
10.0
Social data
10
Social engagement
10
10.0
Marketing automation
10
10.0
Mobile access
10

Using SugarCRM

  • Sales
  • Marketing
  • Customer Support
  • Finance
Sugar is an essential business tool for the business and provides every Team with the information they need to do their job effectively.
Sugar's ease of customisation and admin tools keep on-going support costs to a minimum.
Sugar University offers free training courses users easily keep up to date with Sugar's new features.
Sugar has a very low TCO because of this low resource requirement while allowing us to deliver what the client eeds.
  • Full CRM from lead generation to customer support. Clients have the proverbial 360 customer views and manage the entire customer life cycle.
  • Sale Force Automation with full Mobile support.
  • Customer Support and Help Desk
  • Marketing and Lead Generation
  • Integration with Laboratory Managment Systems and Loyalty Card Systems.
It does all we need and support is excellent.

Evaluating SugarCRM and Competitors

Yes - We have replaced various products from ACT to Microsoft Dynamics with Sugar due to TCO, ease of use and Sugar Mobile.
  • Price
  • Product Usability
  • Prior Experience with the Product
  • Vendor Reputation
  • Analyst Reports
  • Third-party Reviews
Overall TCO, ease of use and platform availability, both cloud and on-premise.
We focus on ease of use and user adoption so we probably would not change our process.

SugarCRM Implementation

Easy to install and manage - the system requires less than hour a month as IT overhead for system administration tasks.
  • Vendor implemented
  • Implemented in-house
  • Professional services company
We have worked with a nuimber of services companies, feel free to contact us for details.
Yes - Most CRM products, imcluding Sugar, have many modules covering many business units so a phased implementation is essential.
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled - Each Team needs appropriate customised training to ensure rapid and positive user adoption. It is also essential to include the Team in defining what customsation is required to mee their indvidual needs.
  • Poor business processes will result in a poor CRM so its; key to review, refine and document those processes.

SugarCRM Training

  • Online training
  • In-person training
  • Self-taught
We feel clasroom training is essential to ensure user adoption and buy-in. Video and on-line training courses gave their place but being in a classroom setting enables the Team to make any potential CRM issues visble right up front.
Only part of an implemementation as noted previously.
Yes it's easy to learn but we would always recommend basic training for maximum ROI.

Configuring SugarCRM

Sugar Studio is very easy to use and makes configuration and customisation very easy, even for people who aren't technical.
My background is field sales and I am Sugar Admin so that says something!
Sugar works best with an agile/prototyping approach to configuration and customisation. The speed of build/deploy enables you to sit with the End User and build what they really want when and as required.
Yes - we have customized the interface extensively - See my previous comments about Sugar Studio and Module Builder.

Very simply, they are excellent tools to use/deliver.
Yes - we have added extensive custom code - Usually for integration with other systems.
Simply to say that both taska are easy to do.

SugarCRM Support

Generally excellent, but not perfect. The support team responds quickly and they have a P1 / P2 / P3 ticket classification system. I personally wish that there was a P4 for product enhancement requests, but Sugar does not handle enhancement requests via this channel.

Also, like all support organizations, they have a tendency to close tickets too quickly. If customers do not respond to messages, they automatically close the ticket even if the issue has not been completely resolved.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
Yes - We run our business on Sugar so it makes sense to have a support contract as we rely on the system so heavily.
Yes - Yes, generally the next Release unless it's a P1 then a Hot Fix is produced by Sugar Support, generally very quickly.
I was building a new module and didn't "follow the rules" and Sugar Support went out of their way to advise me of where I went wrong and how to fix the problem.

They were entitled to say " Go away and read the Manual" but they did not when I explained I was time constrained for delivery.

Using SugarCRM

Simple user interface consistent across all modules. Very easy to learn and use, and simple to implement.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
None
  • The user interface on both the browser and Sugar Mobile is superb so most actions are both visible and easy to do for end users.
  • Sugar Adminsitration can easily be performed by non-technical staff after basic traing.
  • Marketing Automation uses the old interface and needs to be updated.
Yes - A super mobile app for both IOS and Android.

SugarCRM Reliability

Works from 2-300 Users in our experience.
SugarCRM has never been down for us.
No response time issues ever. Very productive due to its ease of use.

Integrating SugarCRM

Provable easy to do and deliver to meet our Clients' needs.
  • Laboratory Systems, Loyalty Systems and ERP Systems.
Sugar's REST API is well document with manay examples so is very easy to use.
  • Future ERP systems.
Many 3rd party plug-ins for standard ERP packages or we can use tools like Talend to do this quickly and easily.
  • File import/export
  • Single Signon
  • API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
  • Javascript widgets
  • ETL tools
  • AppExchange or similar marketplace
With Sugar, a wide range of integration technologies area vailabel to meet most needs.
Review the documentation before you start It will meak your projecta much simpler exercise.

Relationship with SugarCRM

Generally easy to do business with and simple License management process.
See previous
Given the low subscription fee, we have not negotiated special terms.
Negotiate procing at the end of their fiscal quarter and wher possibel look at mult-year contracts with fixed pricing.

Upgrading SugarCRM

Yes - Very simple process to upgrade from V6 to V7 with no major issues and no down time.
  • Great new user interface uses less keystrokes - this is important for user adoption - so increased productivity.
  • New Mobile app really enables the field sales team to work away from the office, whether connected to the internet or not.
  • Record based Dashlets (Mini dashboards) give real feedback at the Customer, Contact, Opportunity, Lead and Case record level so you don't need much reporting.
  • Looking to use Process Author for better workflow/process management
Yes - To get access to Process Author.