SugarCRM released the beta version of its customer relationship management (CRM) software Sugar 4.5. The release adds functionalities like personalized views, internationalization and support for Microsoft Windows Server products.
The company says the feature set included in the software reduces the complexity and restrictions that often plague CRM software, especially in regards to various individual needs.
“Each company has unique needs and each user works in different ways,” said John Roberts, CEO of SugarCRM. “Sugar 4.5 provides the personalization and collaboration capabilities to allow individuals to become more productive and for teams to become more effective.”
Sugar Suite 4.5 was designed to enhance and extend functionality across sales, marketing, service, collaboration, reporting and administration. It is currently available to review on the Community Preview, a demo instance of the application with the new functionality for the general public for testing.
The Beta release of Sugar Open Source 4.5 is currently available here.
The features include:
Personal homepages and user-defined page views, using AJAX technology to allow users to drag, drop, edit, add and remove objects from pages within the application for job-specific function.
Support for Microsoft’s Internet Information Services (IIS) Active Directory and Microsoft SQL Server. SugarCRM will also release a new Sugar distribution under the Microsoft Community License beginning with Sugar 4.5, a part of the Microsoft Shared Source Initiative.
Language support and localization efforts have produced the software in 40 languages. The release introduces internationalization functionality, including support for multi-byte character sets and UTF-8 to ensure international users can store, search and retrieve information in their own language.
Sugar beefed up the sales forecasting ability with quota assignment, scenario planning and forecasting worksheets allow reps to provide more realistic commit amounts and provides managers the ability to roll-up forecasts across teams and territories.
Sugar Studio with code-free customizations, backup and restore functionality, including error handling and recovery mechanisms to simplify SugarCRM administration.
Integrated forums for threaded discussions on selling tips and tricks, support issues, across accounts, bugs, cases, opportunities, and projects.
Self-service portal that reveals Sugar data in customer-facing websites to allow employees, customers and partners access key information.
Data quality controls that checks for duplicate records upon import with extensive duplicate checking logic. A log of duplicate records is created to ensure data integrity. Users can merge existing duplicate records from different views within the SugarCRM application.
The UI includes global search, saved searches, quick and inline adds and edits to create a more streamlined user experience across the application.
Offline client enhancements for installation, upgrade process and optimized sync.
