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SugarCRM, San Francisco, California, United States: The SugarCRM Platform

Company: SugarCRM, San Francisco, CA
Nomination Submitted by: Lutz PR & Marketing
Company Description: SugarCRM is how marketing, sales, and service teams finally get a clear picture of each customer to help businesses reach new levels of performance and predictability. Sugar is the CRM platform that makes the hard things easier. Thousands of companies in over 120 countries rely on Sugar to achieve high-definition CX by letting the platform do the work.
Nomination Category: New Product & Service Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: CRM Suite - Midmarket - New Version
2023 Stevie Winner Nomination Title: The SugarCRM Platform
  1. Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the features, functions, benefits, and results to date of the nominated product or service, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
    Written answers to the questions
  2. If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.

     

  3. Describe the features, functions, and benefits of the nominated product or service (up to 350 words):

    Total 344 words used.

    SugarCRM is a challenger brand in the multi-billion-dollar CRM sector. Sugar’s cloud-based low-code/no-code CRM platform targets high-growth midmarket companies that often lack the in-house technical expertise/support of larger companies but know that winning is about mixing a killer product and innovative service with an effortless customer experience.

    Sugar is incorporating generative AI into its platform to supercharge sales, marketing, and customer service. Newfound “out-of-the-box’ productivity gains do the work to empower teams to deliver exceptional experiences while helping them to work faster and smarter in the following ways:

    Generative AI for Sales dramatically enhances sales productivity and effectiveness by composing personalized and compelling emails and sales copy, data-driven and persuasive ready-made call scripts, and sales proposals infused with real-time customer intelligence.  

    Generative AI for Marketing takes marketing automation and personalization to the next level, maximizing impact through creation of ultra-relevant, personalized marketing campaigns, landing pages and emails, automatic translation, and smarter segmentation.

    Generative AI for Customer Service accelerates knowledge and value exchange by summarizing case history and service tickets, creates personalized user guides and product documentation, and enables agents and customers to quickly find answers and resolve issues.

    This comes on the heels of adding digital self-service capabilities to the platform to enable digital engagement across the entire customer journey, helping B2B sellers keep pace with customer demands. Sugar’s vision to expand digital self-service goes beyond traditional customer service and support and throughout the entire customer journey including the advent of deal room scenarios, online contract negotiations, collaboration with channel partners, and easy access to all relevant business documents and transactions.

    A key Sugar value proposition has always been the platform’s notable extensibility. 

    End-users are benefitting from Sugar’s dedication to supporting deeper ERP and CRM data integration via single platform that gives teams the ability to do “whitespace analysis” and discover hidden up-sell, cross-sell, link-sell and switch-sell products and services more effectively.

    Sugar’s new partnership with sales-i delivers key capabilities to improve B2B sales performance within the manufacturing, wholesale, and distribution sectors via enhanced customer insights, analytics, and intelligence powered by AI and ML.

  4. Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):

    Total 252 words used.

    Sugar is creating a different kind of CRM that lets the platform do the work, as validated by third-party industry analysts and experts in the CRM sector.

    In a report by Nucleus Research (impartial/non-vendor sponsored), compared to Salesforce, Sugar users can lower TCO by up to 32% while delivering similar functionality. These benefits translate to faster time to value and improved ROI. Nucleus analyzed 37 SugarCRM customers and found those opted for Sugar in lieu of Salesforce for: Overall ease of use, higher levels of customer support, a single ecosystem for sales/service/marketing, and access to a strong third-party marketplace.

    Additional industry analyst accolades include Sugar being named:

    Sugar customers are also recognizing the company’s excellence. With a Net Promoter Score of 90+, customer satisfaction for Sugar is far above industry average for SaaS/CRM solutions. 

    Sugar celebrated its thriving user community milestone: 10,000 SugarClub members worldwide and continues to rank a midmarket leader for CRM by G2. Customer reviews on G2 point to Sugar as the choice for “flexible, easy-to-use and customizable CRM.”

     

  5. If you are nominating a brand-new product or service, state the date on which it was released. If you are nominating a new version of an existing product or service, state the date on which the update was released:

     

    The latest release of the SugarCRM Platform (version 13.2) became generally available in October 2023.

    Sugar has been at the forefront of harnessing artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and predictive analytics to automate anything, accelerate everything, and anticipate what’s next. And now, it is integrating generative AI into its platform for breakthrough productivity and improvements. 

    Additional innovations include verticalized capabilities, notably to support the robust and complex customer engagement needs of manufacturers. Sugar is an industrial-grade CRM that automates anything, accelerates everything, and anticipates what’s next. The flexible and powerful platform does the work to power modern marketing, sales, and service for manufacturers.

    A new strategic partnership with SYSPRO emphasizes Sugar’s focus on enhancing the synergy between CRM and ERP solutions to bridge the divide between the front and back office, helping to transform intricate ERP data into actionable insights for sales, marketing, and customer service teams. 

    Additional strategic partnerships – including sales-i for predictive B2B sales intelligence, and Mobileforce to support field service management and integrated quote-to-cash sales execution – further demonstrate Sugar’s commitment to strategically align to mid-market industrial buyer demands, are easy-to-use, and which enable time-to-value, efficiency, and productivity.

    On addressing mid-market buyers’ needs, Sugar CEO Craig Charlton, says: “The mid-market is a very pragmatic sector. They don't have the tolerance for multi-year, multi-million-dollar projects where it's a Lego City that you must build yourself from the ground up. They want applications that work out-of-the-box. It's not a science experiment. It's all about time to value.”

    When you think about industries such as manufacturing and distribution, companies in these sectors are running on slim margins, so they're more mindful about time-to-value, efficiency, and productivity.”

    Furthermore, Charlton explains why Sugar is focused on mid-market businesses in a recent CRM Magazine article titled SugarCRM Shifts Focus to the Mid-Market: “Mid-market businesses are looking for actionable insights and guidance on how to do things better. These organizations also want flexibility with solutions that can shift to meet their changing needs, a value that SugarCRM delivers. We have an incredibly flexible platform that enables you to model the application to enshrine what makes you unique in everything you do," Charlton said.

  6. Outline the market performance, critical reception, and customer satisfaction with the product or service to date. State monetary or unit sales figures to date, if possible, and how they compare to expectations or past performance. Provide links to laudatory product or service reviews. Include some customer testimonials, if applicable (up to 350 words):

    Total 350 words used.

    Sugar’s focus on product innovation to make the hard things easier for sales, marketing, and service teams is paying off. 

    At Sugar’s fall analyst summit, the company shared its strong performance over the past year, with 93% recurring revenue. Also, Sugar is seeing a clear shift to its ideal customer with 20% YoY ARR growth and 115% net retention for Tier 1 accounts (>$200K), and 11% YoY ARR growth and 106% net retention for Tier 2 ($60K-$200K).

    Dubbed “the world’s most loved CRM platform” by ValiantCEO, Sugar has helped thousands of companies in over 120 countries boost productivity, fuel business growth, and achieve high-definition CX to engage customers in the moments that matter.

    Mid-market organizations are achieving breakthrough business outcomes with Sugar:

    • Advocate Construction digitally transformed its go-to-market and sales operations from customer doorstep to the back office. Field sales representatives, armed with tablet devices, are empowered with accurate product availability, while integration with 225 insurance providers streamlines reimbursements, speeding time-to-revenue.
    • Casabaca Toyota implemented a digital sales funnel and now converts 3% more leads, while creating loyal customers. This, in addition to launching an appraisal system within Sugar for used cars, generating a 70% increase in the number of cars appraised and increasing conversion rate from offer-to-buy by 5% in the first two months of implementation.
    • >Funds2Orgs freed up 50% of sales professionals’ time by automating lead emails, tracking inventory and fundraiser status, and simplifying workflows across teams. 
    • Kelly-Moore Paints has seen a 20 to 25% reduction in the time sales reps need to access data; a 50% reduction in the time needed for pricing change approvals; and 30% reduction in the time to make name, address, and other changes to customer records.
    • Neenah Paper improved average marketing campaign open rate from 25 to 30% and its click-through rate from 12 to 15% -- well above industry average rates.
    • rfxcel increased accuracy of its sales forecasting - 7 times out of 10, Sugar’s AI engine, SugarPredict, accurately predicts that a sales opportunity is “more likely” to be won.
    • Tax Saving Professionals accelerated marketing campaign creation 10x, while reducing marketing workload.

     

Attachments/Videos/Links:
The SugarCRM Platform
URL Sugar’s 2024 State of CRM Report
URL State of CRM Survey Shows CRM Evolving to ‘Customer Personal Assistant’ to Support Next-Gen Sales, Marketing and Service
URL SugarCRM Celebrates Thriving User Community Milestone: 10,000 SugarClub Members Worldwide and Growing
URL SugarCRM Unveils Generative AI for Midmarket CRM, Supercharging Sales, Marketing and Customer Service
URL SugarCRM and sales-i Announce Strategic Partnership to Provide Predictive B2B Sales Intelligence, Unlocking Newfound Revenue Opportunities
URL SugarCRM Debuts New Version of Sugar Enterprise with Powerful Features to Supercharge Sales Productivity and Fuel Growth
URL SugarCRM and Mobileforce Partner to Support Field Service Management and Integrated Quote-to-Cash Sales Execution
URL SugarCRM Debuts New Digital Self-Service Capabilities
URL SugarCRM Adds Its SugarPredict AI Capabilities to Supercharge Sales and Service Teams with Automated Sentiment Analysis
URL SugarCRM Introduces Integrated Playbook Functionality to Support Guided Selling and CRM Process Automation
URL SugarCRM Launches the New SugarOutfitters Software Marketplace
URL Nucleus Research – SugarCRM analyst summit updates 2023
URL SugarCRM Named a Leader in the Nucleus Research CRM Value Matrix for Third Year Running
URL SugarCRM Named a Winner of Nucleus 2023 ROI Awards, Recognizing Year’s Top Technology Deployments
URL SugarCRM Recognized as a Leading Vendor in Constellation ShortList for Sales Force Automation
URL SugarCRM Positioned as a Challenger in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Sales Force Automation Platforms
URL SugarCRM Recognized as a Winner in the Prestigious 2022 CRM Watchlist
URL SugarCRM Named Hot Company to Watch in 2023 by Nucleus Research
URL SugarCRM Awarded Exemplary in the 2023 Ventana Research Customer Experience Management Value Index
URL G2 Midmarket Leader for CRM
URL SugarCRM Recognized in the Gartner® Emerging Tech: Tech Innovators for Intelligent CRM Applications Report
URL Waterco Selects SugarCRM with Powerful Integrations to Epicor Kinetic and sales-i to Drive Customer-Centric Buying Experiences
URL Agricultural Innovator Catalyst Performance Agronomy Fuels Growth with Advanced Sales Force Automation from SugarCRM
URL Riverina Selects SugarCRM to Support Sales and Customer Service
URL Summit Homes Group Supports Inspired Home Buying Experiences with Sugar Sell AI-Powered Advanced Sales Automation in the Cloud
URL Positive Promotions Leverages Advanced Forecasting and Predictive Analysis with Sugar Sell for Sales Automation
URL SugarCRM Aids Relationship Management, Data Governance and Decision-Making for Australia’s Leading Children’s Charity (Barnardos Australia)
URL SugarCRM Powers Sales Automation for Fern Energy, Supercharges Customer Experience for the Energy Sector Worldwide
URL CRM Magazine – SugarCRM Shifts Focus to the Mid-Market
URL CRM Magazine – SugarCRM Touts Generative AI's Potential at London Conference
URL CRM Buyer – SugarCRM Adds Predictive AI to Futuristic Sales Playbook
URL The Futurum Group – SugarCRM Unveils Generative AI for Sales, Marketing, and Service
URL Manufacturing Automation – SYSPRO ERP and SugarCRM partner to offer integrated ERP and CRM solution
URL Gaming and Entertainment Leader J&J Ventures Gaming, LLC Unlocks New Sales Opportunities with Sugar Sell AI-Powered Sales Automation
URL Reusable Transport Packaging Fuels Business Growth with AI-Powered Sales and Marketing Automation from SugarCRM