SugarCRM vs. Salesforce

[davidsmith31988]

Hey folks,

I was wondering, if anyone of you have used SugarCRM, SAP Business by design, Netsuite, Salesforce.com or Oracle on Demand. I am interested in learning from your experience, when one is better than other.Thanks for your opinion!

Best,
David

[longreach]

For me, some of the key characteristics -

- salesforce.com - users typically report paying $130 US per user per month (it is only available On Demand) - for a solid, mature, deep but narrow (not many features outside of what you expect from a CRM) CRM with good support. People only seem to leave sf.com if they are tired of paying every month, or if they want more business integration than sf.com can deliver (yes - I know it is a 'platform' - but it gets even more expensive when you try to go that way)

- NetSuite - users typically report paying about $100 per user per month (it is only available On Demand) - for a nice system that offers CRM plus Business Management - a full 3 ledger accounting system, eCommerce site, and Customer Portal. The negatives are that any call for support is said to be deflected to sales people to sell you something to address your need. They have a bad name right now for jacking the cost on annual renewals, and for downright poor support.

- comparatively, SugarCRM has more attractive screens that are easier to navigate than either of these two - although sf.com is pretty close. NetSuite especially, given the accounting info collected by many of the screens, and a somewhat more awkward and ugly navigation system, has a slightly less friendly UI

[mikev]

I'll chime in here as well. We are now a SugarCRM Silver Partner, but looked at partnering with SalesForce.com when looking for a CRM tool. We picked Sugar for a few reasons:

1. It has some killer integration features that SalesForce.com doesn't (open integration rocks)
2. It has an extremely rapid evolution lifecycle - SugarCRM 5.0 has really caught up with and surpassed SalesForce
3. We can make it do what we want - It's the beauty of open source, it can be told to do just about anything
4. Price - It's just plain less expensive

The other applications - NetSuite, Oracle, SAP play in different arenas. They are more focused on integrated backoffice instead of simply great CRM.

Just my 2 cents.

-Mike

[davidsmith31988]

Thanks for the help guys.

I was also wondering, if any of your companies have implemented Performance Management/talent Management Software-as-a-service. Can the system tie into your exisiting IT Infrastructure?

Also, what what do you think about it - ie has it really helped in setting goals and achieving employees goals, and also how often do you guys use the product.

Any anecdotal experiences will be very valuable. Thanks so much!

Best,
David