Feature
SugarCRM is enhancing search and adding new capabilities in the latest version of its customer relationship management (CRM) software platform.
Version 7.7, released today, includes an enhanced search function and the ability to add custom tags integrated into the Sugar database in a move to better classify customer information from various applications.
"People live in a digital world, and they expect to work the same way they live," Rich Green, chief product officer for Cupertino, Calif.-based SugarCRM, told CMSWire. "They have information at their fingertips all the time and want to be able to do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it."
'Significant' SugarCRM Release
That philosophy is at the core of SugarCRM's 7.7 release, which company officials said puts more timely and relevant information in the hands of the customer-facing employee.
"This is a long-term support release and we expect customers to be on for a significant period of time," Green said. "There's this challenge of overlaying a structured CRM process, which we have done very well. Ours is a configurable system that people can adjust in ways competitors cannot. We offer hosted, on-premise and you can run our technology out of the box. Configure the capabilities and workflows anyway you want."
SugarCRM provides this flexibility, he said, through data tagging and global search. Green said tagging to organize data within a common theme and global search powered by scalable query engines helps Sugar 7.7 users be more productive.
The new custom tags allow CRM users to tag any record in the application. Sugar tags are integrated into the Sugar database. The benefit, according to SugarCRM officials, is that tags become available through a global search experience instead of a separate tag search mechanism.
The tags, officials said, can be available as filter criteria in search results and also as reporting criteria. Tags themselves can also be reviewed and managed in the corresponding module within Sugar. This administrative interface allows individuals to edit, delete, export and merge tags.
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Optimized Search
Using Elasticsearch technology, the search option automatically expands upon selection. New search functions include:
- Results filtered by module and other criteria
- Individual color-coded search results evaluated using the preview option
- Query searches across all Sugar standard and custom modules that match any text or number stored in the application and prioritizes frequently viewed records
"This is complete search of all data in the CRM system," Green said. "We're accelerating data integration. As we pull in data from other enterprise and social data sources, the ability to do searching on that information is vital. The richest information in a CRM environment is email. To be able to pull in email into our systems and then do search on that provides a global search of relevant information that becomes part of the CRM system from other key data sources."
Knowledge Base, Lead Conversion
SugarCRM also provides a "knowledge base" where users can write articles about any topic and make them available internally or externally. The base includes an intelligence panel where context-sensitive display enables agents and customers to find articles.
Sugar 7.7 also includes enhancements to lead conversions, quote and forecast information and support for Sugar Logic.
Gartner last August named SugarCRM a "niche player" in its Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management. Only Marketo, Oracle and IBM (Silverpop) made it to the “leaders” section of the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm’s annual list of top vendors for customer relationship lead management.
