Johannesburg, 11 Aug 2011
Astidian Systems, an avid supporter of the open source business software initiative, recently announced its commitment to deploying SugarCRM release 6 from SugarCRM, the world's fastest-growing customer relationship system company.
Created in 2004, SugarCRM brought the power of the open source initiative to the CRM space. According to Jacques Robinson, CMO of Astidian Systems: “CRM users could suddenly leverage the benefits of a leading community effort, complete with commercialised support. Intimate involvement in the development process within an open technology and architecture model is what makes SugarCRM such a success and quick fit to the business.”
With the acceptance of the SugarCRM application solution as the fastest growing alternative in the CRM software space, the product finds itself facing the needs of a more diverse range of users than ever. This includes anything from small businesses to very large, global corporations - all with a desire to make use of the current trends and technologies on offer.
To accommodate these requirements, the SugarCRM 6 release not only boasts an impressive range of features, but also includes two extra subscription options. In addition to the Professional and Enterprise options already available, subscribers can now choose from the Corporate or Ultimate editions as well.
Priced from R300 per user per month, Sugar Corporate is designed for companies that use field staff extensively. These users find themselves prospecting on the go, making constant connection to SugarCRM impractical. Using mobile offline syncing, they can download sales information and commit changes at their convenience.
Large organisations with mission-critical needs, existing proprietary databases (like Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle), and widespread operations, can opt for Sugar Ultimate. Ultimate improves on the Enterprise version by several degrees, including robust enterprise-class functionality, greater data storage and availability, and the type of top-notch customer support expected by world-class businesses.
Each subscription type comes with what the SugarCRM developers refer to as “A La Carte” selections - optional extras that customers can include as needed, like improved product support, or specific additional functionality.
What really sets SugarCRM apart from its competitors is its acute awareness of the desire companies have to leverage the power of social media and online collaboration in their marketing efforts. Here, SugarCRM already lives up to its reputation as the leading global open platform for Social CRM. A range of plug-ins allow full use of social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter), e-mail integration (Outlook, Lotus Notes, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, IMAP, and Sugar's own internal mail function), online collaboration systems (LotusLive, Cisco WebEx, GoToMeeting), document sharing (LotusLive, Google Docs), and online sales intelligence (InsideView, Hoovers, Jigsaw, and ZoomInfo).
Mix all this with four mobile offerings (including a user interface for smartphone browsing, native apps for iPhone and Android, Sugar Mobile Plus for offline syncing, and an Offline Client for accessing data on a disconnected PC or laptop) and SugarCRM pretty much covers the spectrum of modern CRM requirements.
Of course, the full suite of CRM functions accessible through all this technology can't be overlooked. SugarCRM offers the expected sales force automation, marketing management, and customer service functionality, as well as extensive real-time reporting, business intelligence, analytical tools, multi-language support, and a shareable knowledge base, just to name a few.
Finally, SugarCRM features several deployment scenarios to meet the operational requirements of most companies. These include On-premises, where the system is hosted at an organisation's location, or On-demand, whereby a knowledgeable SugarCRM partner (like Astidian) hosts the application, offering implementation, upgrades, maintenance, and administration as a service.
As a fully-fledged SugarCRM partner, Astidian encourages the use of SugarCRM version 6 to its clients and those thinking about making CRM a part of their operations.
Says Robinson: “SugarCRM brings a unique, cost-effective Web and mobile-enabled platform of innovation to the table, not only for those requiring an out-of-the-box CRM solution, but also for businesses with a particular customer-centric workflow and portal requirement.”
Existing community SugarCRM users, as well as those interested in experiencing the power of CRM, can contact Astidian Systems for information and advice on CRM, assistance with implementation, and consulting and support.
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