Long-term partnership paves the way to reaching more customers because the combination unlocks the added value of a company’s ERP and CRM data
SAN FRANCISCO–( BUSINESS WIRE )– SugarCRM , provider of the award-winning intelligent sales automation platform, today announced the acquisition of sales-i . sales-i is a leading provider of revenue intelligence solutions that help companies maximize their sales and profitability. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
The acquisition comes nearly a year after Sugar and sales-i announced a partnership to improve B2B sales performance by providing AI-powered revenue intelligence that leverages enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship (CRM) data Management) systems of a company uses. This combination provides companies with actionable insights that improve sales, marketing, service and support, resulting in more sales and higher customer loyalty.
„We are bringing together two great companies with complementary products, a shared vision for customer success, and experience and expertise in using machine learning, AI, and generative AI to unlock the value of front-office and back-office data,“ said Craig Charlton, CEO of Sugar. „This combination delivers actionable, intelligent sales strategies that improve bottom line, maximize profitability, increase customer satisfaction, and create more effective sales reps.“
Paul Black, founder and CEO of sales-i, added: “The partnership between sales-i and SugarCRM has enabled companies to gain unrivaled insights into their customers’ purchasing behavior. Together we will expand our capabilities and accelerate development processes that will benefit customers and have a significant impact on the market.”
„Companies‘ current focus on profit margin and the increasing adoption of subscription and usage-based pricing models are changing the economics of sales,“ said Stephen Hurrell, research director in the Office of Revenue at ISG’s Ventana Research. „Relying solely on CRM data leaves account management short-changed. Upselling and cross-selling to the same customers is more profitable than finding and selling to new customers, but it requires a more comprehensive understanding of the customer that is gained by building and maintaining a long-term relationship. This latest move by SugarCRM aims to meet this need across many different industries and companies.“
While many companies have a wealth of sales data, the challenge is sifting through large amounts of data to find cross-sell or upsell opportunities or simply ensure that existing customers follow through on their purchase commitments.
To overcome this challenge, the two companies worked together. sales-i serves as a sales revenue intelligence tool that captures insights about product, price, quantity and frequency from the customer’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The tool is able to exchange data with the SugarCRM solution, and the interaction provides customers with specific insights into the trends between the company and its customer at a glance.
The merger will enable the combined company, with more than 550 employees worldwide, to help customers unlock the value of their ERP data. Some of the key benefits are:
- This gives customers the opportunity to view, interpret and respond to their own customer data with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).
- Functions as an intelligent account management system that supports companies with extensive management requirements
- Customers can outmaneuver new competitive threats by unlocking the value of their existing data while reducing customer churn
- Providing actionable insights that increase sales and marketing efficiency and effectiveness at lower costs.
There are also other plus points. Sales-i customers have the advantage of being part of a global company that allows them to do business anywhere in the world. It also allows them to seamlessly leverage more advanced sales, marketing and service automation, helping them grow revenue even more efficiently. SugarCRM customers have the opportunity to leverage the extensive sales data stored in their ERP systems using the sales-i solution’s revenue intelligence capabilities.
As a result, both customer bases benefit from the joint investments that SugarCRM and sales-i have made in AI, machine learning and generative AI technologies. This will enable Sugar to deliver innovative smart solutions faster.
The partnership between Sugar and sales-i is viewed very positively by customers. Beth Freeman, executive vice president of FSIoffice, an independent office supply retailer in Charlotte, North Carolina, said one of the biggest benefits of the Sugar Sales i integration is increased sales efficiency.
“Integrating sales-i with SugarCRM has been a significant advantage for our team as we now gain valuable sales insights,” said Freeman. “I love that we can combine soft data (such as customer interactions) with hard data (such as purchase history) to better meet our customers‘ needs. We are also more efficient, targeted and effective in reaching customers because sales-i provides us with insights into purchasing behavior and supports our sales team in Sugar with specific product placement suggestions. This saves us a lot of time, especially when training new sales employees.”
In February, sales-i was named the winner of the 2024 SugarCRM Partner Award, based on partner performance, customer results and commitment to Sugar’s product and service standards.
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About SugarCRM
SugarCRM provides software solutions that help marketing, sales and service teams achieve maximum efficiency through better automation, data and intelligence so they have a reliable view of every customer in real time. The Sugar platform offers leading technology in the areas of sales automation, marketing automation and customer service with the dedicated goal of making difficult things simpler.
Thousands of companies in over 120 countries trust Sugar by letting the platform do the work. Sugar is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area and is backed by Accel-KKR.
For more information about SugarCRM, visit: www.sugarcrm.com .
Contacts
Media contact:
Erin Lutz
Lutz Public Relations and Marketing (on behalf of SugarCRM)
erin@lutzpr.com
949.293.1055
Sarita Kincaid
Vice President, Corporate Communications, SugarCRM
sarita.kincaid@sugarcrm.com
408.913.2090