SugarCon 2013 - Tips and Best Practices: Most common integrations

Most Common Integrations

Shannon BoydSenior Sales Engineer, SugarCRM

April 2013

Every CustomerEvery UserEvery Time

Every Customer: Sugar’s out-of-box usage profiles can be easily extended by integrating with community-, partner- and vendor-developed applications. When the scope is extended, achieving a 360-degree view of the customer is optimized.

Presentation Topics

• What is “out-of-box”?• Why are extensions necessary?• How often is Sugar extended?• Where do extension products

originate?• Which products are most commonly

integrated?• Who installs the product? • What about On-Site vs. On-Demand?

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What is Out-of-Box (OOB)?

• Sugar’s OOB usage profiles include:– Sales automation (lead to close)– Marketing automation (prospect to lead)– Customer support (issue to resolution)– Customer lifecycle (360 degree view)

• Plug-ins for Outlook, Word, and Excel• Connectors for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,

GoToMeeting and more• All included in every commercial edition!

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Why are Extensions Necessary?

• Customers have unique business requirements and use cases:– Match adult learners and working professionals

with education options– Manage futures contracts for traders– Issue licenses to biotech companies– Facilitate web-based gift experiences– Leverage social media for student organizations– And … manage prisoners!

• Which may be Outside of the Box (OSOB)!

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How Often is Sugar Extended?

• Many customers implement CRM as a stand-alone application– What about the power of collaboration?

• Our partners report that ~50% of the time, they are installing some type of extension to address unique needs

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Where Do Extensions Originate?

• Extensions are created by:– the Developer Community– Sugar’s Partners– Product Vendors

• Extensions are available at:– Sugar Forge– Sugar Exchange– Vendor websites

• Google “product and SugarCRM”

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Which Categories Are Most Common?

• In a “scientific survey” the most frequently requested integrations are with:– Email– Email Marketing– Telephone Integration (CTI)– Calendar

• And, next in line:– Reporting, Business Intelligence– Order Management, Products & Quotes– Mobile

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Who Installs the Product?

• Many extensions can be installed by You via Module Loader

• Some extensions are installed by a Partner• Others are installed by the originating

vendor• Once installed, the extension may appear:

– In a new panel in the Admin interface– As a menu item from the navigation bar– Via fields exposed in the UI

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What About On-Site vs. On-Demand?

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On-Site On-DemandInstalled by … • Module Loader

• Code• Module Loader

Maintained by … • Studio• Code

• Studio

• Regardless of deployment strategy, “Upgrade Safe” changes should always be top-of-mind.

• If possible, install first in a sandbox, then promote to your production environment.

More About Common Integrations

• While partners most commonly integrate:

• There are 100s of products available.

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Product Purpose

ACH Credit card payment

EchoSign Electronic signature

Sage 100 ERP ERP integration

QuickBooks Invoicing

Constant Contact Marketing

DocuSign Electronic signature

Intacct Financial

Zendesk Case management

ActivePrime Search Search engine

Act-On Marketing

Finally …

• Is the functionality on Sugar’s roadmap? • Do you need the extension in the initial

implementation phase?• Think about:

– Cost (Free, one-time expense, recurring, based on number of users, etc.)

– Implementation and support strategy (you install, the vendor installs, who maintains?)

– Commercial editions supported (if the latest Sugar edition is not listed, what is the plan to support?)

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Most Common IntegrationsQuestions?

Thank you for attending this session

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