This is the way of SugarCRM – a CRMKonvo
In this conversation we had the pleasure of talking to Clint Oram, chief strategy officer and one of the founders of SugarCRM. We discussed 2021 trends to find out which ones Cllint does see and, of course, which path SugarCRM is following on its trajectory to becoming a platform player and participating in the #ClashOfTitans. This couldn’t be covered without discussing the reasons for SugarCRM leaving the initially highly successful path of using Open Source Software (hint: there have been very good reasons) and what it entails to become – and stay – successful. Clint related a very valuable personal story here to make his point: It is not only about having the right idea. There is so much more to it – but watch it in the CRMKonvo. It being the season, we also asked him about which trends he sees and what customers are asking for. Good answers here. The worst word of the year? “New normal”. Well, I cannot but agree here … although … something has changed, hasn’t it? Enjoy this awesome CRMKonvo....
CX, communications platforms and what’s great next year
This time, we welcomed Michael Fauscette in our virtual, distributed studio. With him we discussed what will become 2021 trends, looked at his views on the best and worst buzzwords on the market, the role of CDPs and rather communications platforms and what an actually usable AI could be. Michael is a renowned analyst and author, with more than 20 years of experience in and around the CRM industry. He is the Chief Research Officer at G2, an analyst firm that bases that serves companies small to enterprise and that is unique in a sense that its analyses are based on customer feedback. Given that, our discussion of course touched his upcoming book (which sounds like it will be very readable) and the role of analysts — whether they are serving their purpose well and what could be improved. Us being all about CX, the meaning of CX cannot be forgotten. Did you always want to know what a business communications platform is and never dared to ask? Well, Michael has a good answer for you. And then there is photography. As usual – it is a conversation and might lead different directions. Did it? You find out!...
SugarCRM picks up speed, takes on the market
A bit more than one year ago I asked whether SugarCRM is getting its mojo back after the company shed its open source roots in 2014 and got acquired by Accel-KKR in August 2018. End of July 2019 the company published its renewed vision under CEO Craig Charlton. The vision is “to create a world where companies cultivate customers for life by anticipating and fulfilling needs before customers realize they have them”. It revolves around the three topics Intelligent Customer Experience platform and the underlying ‘time-aware’ data modelNo-Touch Information Management with the idea of enabling users to spend less time entering and searching for data in favor of spending more time with their customersContinuous Cloud Innovation to provide a modern and future proof cloud-based software platform Since then quite some things happened to implement this vision. In addition, SugarCRM held a four-hour virtual analyst summit on November 16, 2020. The Analyst Summit The summit itself was fully live, i.e. without any pre-canned parts, and executed using Zoom, including the break-outs into 1:1’s and small group sessions. At least one of the SugarCRM execs also took advantage of the polling feature during his session. The choice of this format made the event both, not so “cineastic” (the new mot-du-jour for virtual events) and very authentic. I need to say that I prefer authentic over cineastic. The sessions covered the status quo, the overall strategy, a customer testimonial and, of course, future plans of the various products, as usual under NDA, so I will not dive into details here. During all sessions I perceived a genuine interest in feedback for the...
The Value of Focus in A Platform World
Smaller enterprise software vendors today operate in a world where their fortunes may rise and fall on their ability to integrate with one or more cloud computing platforms. In many cases, having a connector or API for multiple platforms is a great means to survive and thrive. But it’s not the only way. Versatility has always been one of the watch words of cloud computing. The ease of adding and updating functions, or of moving to a new platform entirely, created an incentive for vendors to embrace that versatility. The CEO or CFO who is looking out for their company’s future would thus rarely be faulted for trusting vendors whose products work on as many platforms as possible. The CTO, on the other hand, might not share that view. While that role has to allow for future moves their company might make, they are also the person who is most responsible for choosing the best tools for the job and making sure they keep working. For the CTO, a vendor’s ability to serve across multiple platforms is far less relevant than the quality, usability, and robustness of their product for the platform being used right now. Disclosure: The inspiration for this article comes from working with FastCall (www.fastcall.com), a business communications system vendor that works exclusively with Salesforce. FastCall is my client; the words and thoughts presented here are my own. Is This A Game? Think of it this way: Let’s say you have a Playstation gaming console. Does it matter if your favorite game is also available for XBox, Nintendo Switch, and PC? You can only use one...