Why SugarCRM instead of SalesForce or Microsoft Dynamics or XYZ CRMs

There are too many CRM applications out there!

So, why use SugarCRM instead of one of SalesForce or Microsoft Dynamics or XYZ other application?

It’s Open Source

Often this is hard to explain to customers who, quite rightly, are focused on deliverables from software and not semantics. But in the medium and long term, open source is a strategically wise choice. It’s the direction of travel for software generally because of the cost, security, innovation and ownership benefits that it delivers. Open Source dominates the infrastructure world and is rapidly encroaching on the business application world. It’s the future, available now.

Ease of use

Less prosaic than the above. SugarCRM has a consistent and readily understandable user interface which makes for rapid and easy user adoption. SugarCRM uses modern web technologies that take advantage of advances in usability giving a modern look and feel to the application. It also plays nice on mobile devices

Integration and custom development

SugarCRM delivers two key benefits when it comes to making the code fit your business processes: It’s standards based and all the code is accessible.

But what does that mean in simple terms?

Integration – Compared to competitor products like Microsoft, integration is simpler because developers can see and change every line of code. With Microsoft they see none. Microsoft development means using black box technology that constrain creativity and limit business process modelling options.

Development – Compared to competitor products such as SalesForce, there’s an open market in SugarCRM skills and project rates tend to be firmly mid-market. With SalesForce, you don’t get to see the code until you’re paying the big bucks per-user per-month and when you do see the code, development will be done by partners charging top-end-of-the-market day rates. So, SugarCRM development tends to be faster and cheaper

Complete ownership

Ownership – It’s simple. If you deploy SugarCRM you own the code and the data. Nobody can force you to upgrade to more expensive versions. Nobody can tell you that it’s out of support and you need to upgrade it. Nobody can tell you that you can’t host it on your own servers. Nobody can charge you for access to the raw code or database. You own the application, the database, the support and deployment options from A through to Z. Try asking Microsoft if you own the code…or SalesForce