SugarCRM plans to launch the next version of its open
source customer relationship management (CRM) platform next week,
with several new features to aid companies’ sales and
marketing.
Sugar 4.0 is the latest offering since the product first
appeared on the market in July 2004. The new version includes
workflow management and has the ability to automatically convert
e-mails into sales leads.
In addition, the product’s campaign management, reporting,
executive dashboards and lead-sharing features have been
enhanced.
With the advanced features in version 4.0, the company is trying
to make Sugar a more viable alternative to proprietary solutions
from the likes of Siebel, Salesforce.com and Microsoft.
Sugar 4.0 is available in three versions. An enterprise edition
costs £265 a year per user and a professional edition comes in at
£140 a year per user.
The core SugarCRM offering, without advanced features such as
workflow management, is available as a free download.
SugarCRM says the free core product has been downloaded 300,000
times.