SugarCRM Offers Open-Source Sales App

Computerworld - Open-source start-up SugarCRM Inc. last week released the first commercial version of its Linux-based CRM software, promising to support corporate users through a combination of in-house telephone lines and third-party service calls.
Sugar Sales Professional 1.5 starts at $149 per seat for the first year, which includes technical support and administrator training. The software runs natively on Linux and supports the Apache Web server, MySQL database and PHP programming language. But it can also run on Mac OS X and Windows systems, said John Roberts, co-founder and CEO of Cupertino, Calif.-based SugarCRM.
The company will provide telephone support and bulletin boards for users, as well as software updates, patches and fixes. It also plans to sign on business partners to handle field service work, Roberts said. "Yes, it is open-source, but a real company is there to support it," he added.
Chris Le Tocq, an analyst at Guernsey Research in Los Altos, Calif., said users will judge SugarCRM's offering "on the quality of the support" that the company provides. "That's going to be up to Sugar -- to keep people happy [and feeling] that their support is blue-ribbon," Le Tocq said.
Roberts helped start SugarCRM after working at CRM vendor E.piphany Inc. In April, when SugarCRM released an early version of its application, there were just 48 downloads by users. Last month, there were 13,051 downloads, Roberts said.
License Limits
Sugar Sales Professional is licensed under the Sugar Public License, which is a copy of the Mozilla Public License. Users have to release any code changes they make to the open-source community only if they plan to distribute the software to another party, said Roberts. But, he added, the license prevents companies from selling modified code.
Version 1.5 of Sugar Sales Professional includes a plug-in that lets Microsoft Outlook users move customer e-mails into the CRM application with a single mouse click. Roberts said it also provides tools for importing data from proprietary CRM tools, including products from Salesforce.com Inc., Best Software Inc., SalesLogix Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
After the $149 introductory price for the first year of use, Sugar Sales Professional subscribers will have to pay an annual fee of $239 for continued support and services, according to SugarCRM.

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