SugarCRM integrates sales-i to boost sales efficiency & insights

SugarCRM has announced the full integration of its sales-i solution with its Sugar Sell sales automation product, following the acquisition of sales-i in May 2024.

The combined offering aims to help sales teams discover hidden revenue opportunities within their day-to-day sales workflows, supporting performance goals at a time when many organisations are navigating challenging economic and competitive pressures.

The sales-i platform works by analysing complex customer, order, and product data to drive workflows and customer discussions within the SugarCRM system. Such analysis enables sellers to more easily identify cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and detect variations in customer purchasing behaviours that may indicate potential customer churn.

Industry analysts have noted the potential advantages of this approach. Stephen Hurrell, Director of Research, Office of Revenue, for ISG Research said, "The vast majority of AI functionality for sales and CRM can require up to six months of historical customer account data to inform models, an obstacle to organisations changing their CRM. There's an intriguing value proposition that Sugar is bringing to the market with sales-i – the ability to realise value straight away by surfacing actionable insights from the treasure trove of data in ERP platforms – to identify up-sell and cross-sell opportunities with existing customers."

The integration is already being used by several companies to support their sales strategies and performance. Sun State International Trucks, a full-service truck dealership, reports that using Sugar Sell and sales-i together has resulted in shorter sales cycles, as well as a 10% improvement in productivity and time savings for its staff.

FSIoffice, an independent office supply company, is leveraging the integrated solution to benefit from improved sales efficiency, with customer buying behaviour insights and opportunity alerts contributing to a 40% increase in sales efficiency.

Zac Sprackett, Chief Technology Officer at SugarCRM, commented, "For years, pursuing a '360-degree view' of the customer has been considered the Holy Grail for sellers and CRM systems. However, what really matters to sales teams is the critical '30-degree view' that drives real, tangible conversations with prospects and customers. We want to make sales the hero by making this process effortless. This means automatically capturing existing information – from ERP, email, calendar, and conferencing software – and transforming it into immediately actionable recommendations that drive up-sell, cross-sell, link-sell, and retention, enabling sales teams to shine."

SugarCRM has also announced streamlined global access to its products, aimed at accelerating time-to-value for organisations. The company has introduced new configuration templates designed to simplify user onboarding, enable efficient re-use of system changes, and improve deployment across different computing environments.

Enhancements to language support are intended to allow users to operate more effectively in new territories across the globe with the integrated sales-i and Sugar Sell solution.

Dedicated hosting facilities in North America, the UK, EMEA, and Asia Pacific have also been made available. This infrastructure is expected to help customers meet data security demands and facilitate global standardisation on the SugarCRM platform.