Many software releases are judged by the number of new features they introduce.

But sometimes, the most important releases are the ones that improve stability, reliability, and the day-to-day experience for customers.

That is exactly why the SugarAI 26.1 update matters.

While 26.1 does not introduce a huge number of major functional changes, it delivers something arguably more valuable: consistency. This release includes an impressive 152 bug fixes across the platform.

In a software world where some vendors leave long-standing issues unresolved for years, regular maintenance releases like 26.1 show the importance of having a vendor that actively listens to customers, prioritises platform health, and continuously improves the user experience.

For businesses relying on CRM systems every day, stability is not optional. Small issues compound over time, impacting productivity, reporting accuracy, adoption, and customer trust.

SugarAI 26.1 demonstrates a strong commitment to resolving those friction points.

Why Bug Fix Releases Matter

Feature releases often attract the headlines, but bug-fix-focused releases are what keep enterprise platforms dependable.

Every unresolved issue creates operational friction:

• Users lose confidence in the system
• Teams create workarounds
• Reporting becomes less reliable
• Productivity slows down
• Administrators spend more time troubleshooting

When vendors consistently address backlog issues, customers benefit from a platform that becomes more stable and predictable over time.

That is one of the strongest messages behind the 26.1 release.

Our Top 5 Fixes in SugarAI 26.1

1. Editable Fields Now Behave Correctly (Fix 89984)

One frustrating issue for administrators was that fields previously marked as read-only sometimes remained locked even after being updated to editable.

This fix restores expected behavior and removes unnecessary confusion for both admins and end users.

2. Timeline Dashlet Loading Issues Resolved (Fix 89481)

The Timeline dashlet occasionally appeared blank in certain modules, limiting visibility into customer activity and record history.

With this fix, the Timeline dashlet now loads correctly, improving user confidence and record visibility.

3. Better Validation in Dropdown Editor (Fix 98602)

Administrators can now benefit from stronger validation checks when creating dropdown list item names.

This is a small but important improvement that helps prevent bad data and inconsistent configurations from entering the system.

4. Team Filter Copying Now Works Properly (Fix 94065)

Copying filters to all users on a team previously failed to assign those filters correctly.

This fix improves administrative efficiency and ensures teams receive shared configurations as intended.

5. Report Dashlets Now Respect Current Record Filters (Fix 94233)

Report dashlets configured with the “Related to Current Record” option sometimes failed to filter correctly.

That created confusion for users relying on contextual reporting.

The fix ensures dashboards now display accurate, record-specific report data.

More Than Just Maintenance

The scale of this release is what stands out most.

Across User Interface, Administration, Reports, Email, Doc Merge, Quotes, and Opportunities, SugarAI 26.1 resolves issues affecting:

• Performance
• Reporting accuracy
• Workflow automation
• Search functionality
• Email reliability
• User permissions
• UI consistency
• System stability

Several fixes also address performance bottlenecks, timeout issues, and fatal system errors that could impact large enterprise environments.

That matters because reliability is often what separates mature enterprise software vendors from platforms that become difficult to maintain over time.

Final Thoughts

SugarAI 26.1 may not be the flashiest release, but it could be one of the most important.

By resolving 152 bugs across the platform, the release reinforces the value of continuous improvement and proactive software maintenance.

Customers do not just need new features — they need confidence that their platform is stable, supported, and evolving responsibly.

SugarAI 26.1 delivers exactly that.

The post Why the SugarAI 26.1 Update Is So Important appeared first on Sugabyte.

When implemented well, a CRM isn’t just a place to store data; it’s the nervous system that connects every customer interaction across marketing, sales, and service. And right now, SugarCRM is redefining what that looks like.

From Database to Decision Engine

For too long, CRM systems were used as glorified databases — recording contacts, opportunities, and support tickets. But the modern customer journey demands more. Businesses need real-time intelligence: the ability to see, interpret, and act on what’s happening across the entire customer lifecycle.

SugarCRM’s 2024 State of CRM report found that 60% of leaders now view CRM as the “central hub” for customer engagement. That shift in mindset reflects how platforms like SugarCRM are evolving — from passive record systems into intelligent engines that power every customer-facing process.

What’s Driving SugarCRM’s Transformation

At Sugabyte, we’ve watched SugarCRM evolve into one of the most adaptable and insight-driven platforms on the market. Here are three key reasons why:

1. Connected Data Without Complexity

SugarCRM’s open architecture makes it easy to integrate sales, marketing, and service data — without the bloated complexity of enterprise CRMs.
Recent updates, such as Engaged Contacts prioritisation and unified activity creation in version 25.2 give users a single, seamless workspace for collaboration.

2. AI That Actually Works for People

SugarCRM’s latest AI features — like “Needed Follow-Ups” and AI Summarisation — don’t overwhelm users with data. They surface what matters: who needs attention, which deals are at risk, and what conversations drive results.

This kind of contextual intelligence frees sales and service teams to focus on relationships, not admin.

3. 360° Visibility Across the Journey

Because Sugar unifies every customer touchpoint, teams can finally see the full picture: how marketing campaigns influence deal velocity, how post-sale service impacts renewal rates, and how account health links to long-term growth.

That’s the difference between a CRM and a Customer Relationship Platform — one that connects insight with action.

Why This Matters for Growing Businesses

For mid-market companies, a unified CRM core delivers measurable benefits:

• Faster decision-making: real-time insight replaces manual reporting.
• Reduced tech stack complexity: one central platform removes data silos.
• Improved customer experience: consistent messaging from first touch to renewal.
• Predictable growth: connected data leads to smarter forecasting.

In other words, SugarCRM gives growing businesses the operational intelligence once reserved for large enterprises — without the overhead.

Making the Shift with Sugabyte

Transitioning from a “data store” CRM to a “central nervous system” isn’t just a technology project — it’s a mindset shift. Here’s how Sugabyte helps clients make it happen:

1. CRM Health Audit: uncover where your data and processes are disconnected.
2. AI Enablement: configure Sugar’s predictive tools to highlight your most important KPIs.
3. Process Design: streamline your sales, marketing, and service workflows.
4. Version Planning: align your CRM upgrade cadence with SugarCRM’s new twice-yearly release cycle.

The result? A CRM that doesn’t just store information — it powers decisions across your business.

The Bottom Line

SugarCRM’s evolution reflects a bigger truth: in 2025, the CRM isn’t a tool; it’s the operational brain of the business.

And with the right strategy, integrations, and partner — like Sugabyte — your CRM can become the central nervous system that drives clarity, speed, and growth.

Ready to Rethink What CRM Can Do?

Want to see how your CRM could deliver more connected intelligence?
Book a free consultation with Sugabyte to explore what’s possible with SugarCRM.

The post Turning the CRM into Your Central Nervous System | How SugarCRM Is Enabling the Shift appeared first on Sugabyte.

Interface Enhancements

List View Filters and Users Management – Additional filters have been implemented to improve usability, these new filters are “Contain” to be used to filter on Textfields and ‘Before Today” and “After Today” to be used to filter on Date fields.
Additionally as introduced in Sell 13.3 and now available in Enterprise 14.0 is a new and improved User Profile, this has been brought inline to be sidecar as with the majority of other modules to offer a familiar and seamless user experience.
Inline with bringing the User Profile update to the sidecar view, there is also improvement for Sugar Admins with a fully modernised User Management interface, this includes improved filtering, search capabilities and pagination.

Tile View Upgrade – Tile view is now available in all sidecar modules with dropdown values, the dropdown value is needed in order to categorise the “tiles”. The tile view provides a user friendly and visually appealing view for users to easily manage, work with, move on/complete items.

Reporting and Dashboards

Introducing in 14.0 there will be six role based pre built dashboards, utilising 166 pre built reports. These additions are there to improve user adoption by providing insightful easily accessible and relevant information.
Users will now be able to access / update runtime filters for report based dashlets directly from the dashboard, this feature will not only avoid frustrations with needing to navigate away from the dashboard to make these changes but will also be a huge time saver.

Usability Enhancements

The timeline dashlet, previously known as the interactions dashlet, has been made available for most Sugar modules including custom modules. The improvements allow Sugar admins to specify for each module which related modules should show in the dashlet to allow a fully comprehensive view.

There are improvements to the Comment Log field, this field has been added to the Quotes module and Preview layouts and to improve usability and visibility a scroll bar has been implemented to easily view older/newer comments.

Guided Selling Improvements

There has been the introduction of bidirectional Sugar actions, meaning that updates to Sugar records can trigger Smart Guide status changes.
To allow Smart Guides to be more intuitive and user friendly Sugar has introduced the ability to link EXISTING records to a Smart Guide rather than needing to create a NEW record to add to the guide and finally there is now the option to “Archive” a Smart Guide record.

Mail and Calendar Integration Enhancements

A varierty of improvements have been made to Sugars mail and calendar integration “Sugar Connect”, these would have all been pushed through as updates throughout the year and readily available for users prior to the Sugar 14.0 release, below are the highlights of the updates.

• Timeline availability  
• Shared mailbox support – Outlook  
• Option to not use Hint data when creating Contact/Lead   
• Support for additional Languages 
• Support for dropdown-based layouts 
• Team Meetings now available through the Meeting Scheduler in the sidebar 

The post Sugar Enterprise 14.0 – April 2024 release appeared first on Sugabyte.

In this post, we explore the changes users should expect in the SugarCRM Version 10.2 (Q4 2020) Update.

SugarCRM’s Version 10.2 update applies to Sugar Professional, Sugar Enterprise, Sugar Sell and Sugar Serve Users. If you are hosted with Sugar, you either have already or will receive this update within the next weeks.

Note: SugarCRM Version 10.2 is only available for SugarCloud (Sugar-hosted SaaS) deployments. If you are hosted on-site or with us, you will be receiving your next major release in Summer 2021.

SugarCRM Version 10.2 Release Notes

Let’s take a look at the new features added to Sugar (we will highlight if any of these features have been added to the Sugar Sell, Serve, Sugar Enterprise and/or Sugar Professional edition).

Coterminous Add-Ons for Revenue Line Items

Note: Sugar Sell only.

In case you are selling license subscription based services, this will be an interesting one for you.

Quite often we see the need to make adjustments to subscription based services, e.g. adding further licenses for the remainder of the service period, without affecting the service end date.

With Sugar you can now add products and services to an existing Purchased Line Item record (representing a service the customer already bought) to support coterminous add-ons.

Additionally, if the add-on service is renewable, Sugar will automatically update your renewal opportunity and revenue line item related to the original purchase.

Note that the Purchase Line Item has to be marked as a ‘Service‘ for the Add-On option to be made available.

Do Purchases and Purchased Line Items sound new to you? Check the Sugar 10.1 Release Notes for further details on these two new modules.

Either add a new line item to an existing Opportunity or create a new Opportunity. In either case, the Service End Date and Duration will be automatically calculated, leaving the Start Date for you to choose. 

If you mark the Revenue Line Item as ‘Renewable’, once closed won, the add-on will be automatically added to your existing (or new) renewal Opportunity.

Flexible service duration

Note: Sugar Sell and Sugar Enterprise features only.

Now that a service duration can be set on product level, you can specify if the service duration is locked or if users can modify the default service duration on line items.

Multiple Quotes from one RLI

Note: Sugar Sell and Sugar Enterprise feature only.

Dashboard Enhancements

Note: Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve and (some) Sugar Enterprise and Sugar Professional features only.

Resizable Dashlets

Dashlets can now be resized independently of other dashlets by clicking and dragging their lower corners.

Unlimited Dashboards

Dashboards can now include an unlimited number of dashlets.

Active Subscriptions Dashlet (Sugar Sell and Serve only!)

The Active Subscriptions dashlet is now available for all record view dashboards where the module has a relationship to Accounts.

Knowledge Base Search Dashlet (Sugar Sell and Serve only!)

This dashlet can be added to any type of Dashboard. It provides the user with all Knowledge Base Articles displayed in a tree structure dashlet. Expand the tree structure to access a KB Article which will open in a new browser tab.

Interactions Dashlet (Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve and Sugar Enterprise only!)

What a great addition to SugarCRM’s set of default dashlets!

The Interactions Dashlet can be added to the Accounts, Contacts, Leads and Opportunities Record View layout. It provides you an overview of all activities – with the most recent activities listed at the top. This includes calls, meetings, emails and notes.

Click on an activity to reveal further details.

This dashlet is also available on the Account Detail and Opportunity Detail drawers of the Renewals Console.

User Interface Improvements

Note: Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve, Sugar Enterprise and Sugar Professional features.

Audit Log for Activities

Much missed, but finally back! Audit Logs for Calls, Meetings and Tasks can be enabled again. Any field that you want to include in the audit trail, simply tick the ‘Audit’ checkbox in Administration > Studio.

Service-focused Enhancements

Note: Sugar Serve only.

SugarLive Contact Center Tool

Important: An Amazon Connect (similar to a chat bot) instance is required to use this feature.

This omni-channel tool uses Amazon Connect to allow customer service agents to communicate in real-time with clients while updating relevant customer data. Here are the key features:

• SugarLive is available in the footer and pops up automatically when a call or chat is routed to you
• When you accept an incoming call or chat, the full view opens including a panel allowing you to search for, view, and update records relevant to the customer or case
• A call or message record is created for each completed conversation to track the communication.

‘Request To Close’ Case button in portal

A new button has been added to portal case records that allows customers to easily communicate that it is safe to close their case.

New module: Messages

The Messages module has been added to track online interactions such as instant messaging or social media.

SugarLive uses it to record the details and chat transcript of chats with customers.

Message records are also included in the Case and Contact Interactions dashlets.

SugarBPM Enhancements

Note: Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve and Sugar Enterprise features only.

New ‘is one of’ operator

Where previously it has been tricky to evaluate the condition of a multi-select field by only using ‘is’ and ‘is not’ operators (with more than 5 multi-select values, the value combinations already feel endless…), we now have a new operator: ‘is one of‘.

We did wonder why no ‘is not one of’ operator was added, however you can simply replicate this condition by using the ‘NOT’ operator, similarly to this example:

Relate fields in field evaluations

So far field evaluations could only be completed on the target module and related modules via a two-way relationship. You will now be able to use Relate type fields in Process Definition field evaluations so they can be used as a criteria in conditions.

Send message to all teams on the record

A new option has been added to the recipient list when using the Send Message and End events: ‘All teams assigned to the record‘. This option will dynamically add all teams on the target record to the recipient list.

Studio Enhancements

Note: Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve, Sugar Enterprise and Sugar Professional features.

New field type: AutoIncrement

An auto-increment field type allows admins to add a unique numerical ID to module records. This field cannot be edited by end users as the value is auto-generated on record creation.

Unfortunately, there is no option to add a prefix to your numerical ID (customer numbers starting with non-numeric characters, e.g. ‘SUG-10001’) nor to use AutoIncrement type fields in other field calculations (such as a concatenate formula in a Textfield), however we will sit tight as we suspect this to be added in a future release!

Make a field conditionally required

Requested by many, we can now mark a field conditionally required (e.g. if an Account record is of Type ‘Customer’, make the Service Level field required).

The formula logic to use is the same as setting a field dependency via a formula.

Note that you can still set a field to be required without specifying a ‘Required if’ condition. Simply set the checkbox for ‘Required Field’. If the formula field is left blank, the field will be set as required in any case.

Sugar Logic changes

Following formula functions have been added or updated:

• str_replace() : This new formula lets you replace portions of text within a string
• year() : This new formula lets you return the year value from a date field
• isInList() : This updated formula now lets you pass a multi-select field as a second parameter.

Admin Enhancements

Note: Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve, Sugar Enterprise and Sugar Professional features.

OAuth2 for Google Mail and Exchange Online

Sugar now supports OAuth2 connections to Google Mail and Exchange Online when configuring the system outbound email, system inbound email and user email accounts in Sugar.

Microsoft connector

Administrators can now configure the Microsoft connector via Admin > Connectors to allow Sugar to connect to the Microsoft API Services via OAuth2 to send outbound emails as well as receive inbound emails.

SugarIdentity Enhancements

Note: SugarIdentity-enabled instances only.

Want to know more about SugarIdentity? Please read our post on introducing SugarIdentity to you.

Change Password capability for users

A feature that will make user management much simpler going forward. The previously existing Sugar feature of changing your users password in the Sugar application has now been re-introduced for SugarIdentity-enabled instances. The Change Password option is now available in the profile dropdown menu.

Update existing user records via import

Same with the change password feature, a previously used function from the Sugar application has been re-introduced for SugarIdentity-enabled instances: User record updates via import.

If you are familiar with the import wizard, you will very quickly see that this is Sugars standard import wizard which guides you through the various import steps.

SugarCloud Settings link

The SugarCloud Settings link is now available on the Admin page for administrators to easily access the SugarCloud Settings console.

Conclusion on SugarCRM Version 10.2

Please don’t hesitate to contact us should you require any further information on SugarCRM Version 10.2 and we will be more than happy to help you!

Want to know what was released in Sugar 10.1 this autumn? Check out our previous blog post here:

SugarCRM Version 10.1 (Q3 2020) Update – Release Notes

New to SugarCRM?

Click here to Sign up for FREE!

The post SugarCRM Version 10.2 (Q4 2020) Update – Release Notes appeared first on Sugabyte.

Node.io is one of the first companies to offer an AI platform with their deep learning models as a service. With SugarCRM’s recent acquisition of Node.io, SugarCRM’s customers will be able to surface impressive predictability to deliver a high definition view of your customers, leads, pipeline, and other key indicators of which drive real decisions.

I’ve seen so many marketing departments really stretching the definition of AI within their tools (you know who you are!), to the point where I have to laugh sometimes. So i’m naturally sckeptical about these kinds of claims. However, after speaking personally to individuals inside of SugarCRM who have seen what Node.io can do, i’m genuinly excited for us at Sugabyte and our customers.

Here’s their press release: (source)

CUPERTINO, California – August 24, 2020 – SugarCRM Inc., the innovator of time-aware customer experience (CX), today announced the acquisition of Node Inc., an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that leverages CRM data and vast external sources to deliver an unparalleled level of predictability across a whole array of different business use cases. The acquisition fuels Sugar’s time-aware CX platform by automatically forecasting expected outcomes and highlighting previously unforeseen challenges and opportunities. 

Making sense of data is a perennial issue for companies. Deep learning models are limited by the quality and quantity of input data, which historically has been inaccurate or incomplete in real-life CRM implementations. Node’s deep learning models identify signals with up to 81% greater accuracy than heuristic-based approaches to deliver the tangible benefits of heightened performance and true predictability.

“Sugar has been a fantastic platform at its heart,” said Paul Greenberg, president of the 56 Group and author of CRM at the Speed of Light. “Adding Node has the potential to bring impressive predictive accuracy to Sugar’s platform and products. And now more than ever it is critical to leverage all available data and signals to work towards better outcomes for both customers and the business alike.”

Today’s acquisition is the latest in a series of innovations supporting Sugar’s vision for the next frontier of high-definition customer experience (HD-CX) which began last year with the launch of Sugar’s time-based, no touch CX solutions for sales, marketing and service teams. 

“Obtaining a high definition view of your business and customers, from pipeline to forecasting, is all about replacing a fragmented, dated, and distorted picture with one that is sharply focused and rich in breadth and depth,” said Craig Charlton, CEO of SugarCRM. “Sugar is democratizing AI, ushering in a new frontier in CX with its powerful combination of AI, time-aware and data enrichment, to drive business performance and enable predictability for companies of all sizes.”

Extending Sugar’s time-aware CX platform, Node’s AI technology adds the most coveted element of time—the future. The combined solution offers wide-ranging capabilities for sales, marketing and service teams and include (but are in no way limited to):

• – Identifying customers most likely to churn, giving precious runway to remediate and engage with customers in the most strategic way possible
• – Predicting likelihood to convert from lead scoring models
• – Insight-driven forecasting and prescriptive guidance for higher quota attainment and sale close monitoring
• – Seamless recommendations for add-on products during the right phase of the customer journey increasing average sale size
• – Ascertaining marketing attribution and contribution to closed business
• – Improving customer engagement models through predictive case routing and contextual data in real time to empower customer service professionals

The post Coming to Sugar: The power of AI appeared first on Sugabyte.

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In this post, we explore the changes users should expect in the SugarCRM Version 10.1 (Q3 2020) Update.

SugarCRM’s Version 10.1 update applies to Sugar Professional, Sugar Enterprise, Sugar Sell and Sugar Serve Users. If you are hosted with Sugar, you either have already or will receive this update within the next weeks.

Note: SugarCRM Version 10.1 is only available for SugarCloud (Sugar-hosted SaaS) deployments. If you are hosted on-site or with us, you will be receiving your next major release in Summer 2021.

SugarCRM Version 10.1 Release Notes

Let’s take a look at the new features added to Sugar (we will highlight if any of these features have been added to the Sugar Sell, Serve, Sugar Enterprise and/or Sugar Professional edition).

Purchases and Purchased Line Items

Note: Sugar Sell and Sugar Serve feature only.

The new Purchases module shows each good or service a customer has bought whilst the Purchased Line Items module captures each time it was bought, providing a historically accurate record of sales and customer worth while supporting post-sale operations.

Purchases and purchased line items are automatically generated for “Closed Won” opportunities with revenue line items, if the line items “Generate Purchase” dropdown equals “Yes” (default value).

You can access the Purchases and Purchased Line Items module via the menu bar or via an Accounts Purchases subpanel.

The Active Subscriptions dashlet is now based on purchases and purchased line items.

Manage Revenue Line Items at Opportunity Level

Note: Sugar Sell and Sugar Enterprise feature only.

Requested by many customers, the expected close date, sales stage, and service start date can now be set at the opportunity level and pushed to all open related revenue line items, saving you repetitive revenue line item data entry.

A couple of extra bonuses for sales management: You can now calculate discount amounts based on values or percentages (e.g. 10%) and also enter negative values (credit) in revenue and quoted line items (this feature is also available with Sugar Professional).

Workforce Management

Note: Sugar Sell and Sugar Serve feature only.

Console Management

Note: Sugar Sell and Sugar Serve feature only.

In a bid to condense the User Interface layout, the Renewals Console and Service Console (available on your Dashboard) were previously introduced.

To optimise these consoles, admins or dashboard owners are now able to further modify the console module tab view.

• You can re-arrange the position of each dashlet
• You can edit the dashlets
• You can remove dashlets via the settings cog in the top right corner of each dashlet
• You can click on the pencil icon in the top left corner of the dashlet view and add new dashlets

You will also be able to modify the consoles module tab List View by amending/adding/removing new columns. Check this video on how to make these changes:

Fur further details on how to configure the consoles, please check the detailed documentation on this for Sugar Sell and Sugar Serve.

Record View Dashlet

Note: Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve and Sugar Enterprise feature only.

You should already be familiar with the Record View dashlet.

Comment Log

Note: Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve, Sugar Enterprise and Sugar Professional feature.

Users now have the option to be notified via email when they are mentioned in a comment log entry by enabling the ‘Email on Mention‘ checkbox in their profile.

Admin users can configure the comment log email notification template via Emails > View Email Templates.

Configurable System Email Templates

Note: Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve, Sugar Enterprise and Sugar Professional feature.

Additional system email templates are now available for configuration by admin users via Emails > View Email Templates:

• Assignment Notification Emails
• Call Notifications Emails
• Meeting Notifications Emails
• Scheduled Report Emails

Refresh Button

Note: Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve and Sugar Enterprise feature only.

The Refresh button has been added to the list views of all SugarBPM modules to allow users to quickly refresh the list view results without having to reload the browser.

The same applies to the Cases, Tasks, Leads and Opportunities tile view to allow users to quickly reapply filters after making changes to the displayed records without having to reload the browser.

Record View Enhancements

Note: Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve, Sugar Enterprise and Sugar Professional feature.

Auto-focus cursor on first field in record view

When creating or editing records in Sidecar modules, the cursor is now automatically focused on the first field (e.g. Subject) in the record view layout.

Clickable hyperlinks in text area fields

Hyperlinks in text area fields are now clickable and will open the link in a new tab.

SugarIdentity

Note: Sugar Sell, Sugar Serve, Sugar Enterprise and Sugar Professional features where SugarIdentity is enabled.

SugarIdentity now supports duplicating and deleting records in the Employees module.

Conclusion on SugarCRM Version 10.1

Please don’t hesitate to contact us should you require any further information on SugarCRM Version 10.1 and we will be more than happy to help you!

Want to know what was released in Sugar 10.0 this summer? Check out our previous blog post here:

SugarCRM Version 10 (Q2 2020) Update – User Interface Review

New to SugarCRM?

Click here to Sign up for FREE!

The post SugarCRM Version 10.1 (Q3 2020) Update – Release Notes appeared first on Sugabyte.

To provide a high level of customer experience across departments, each department should be empowered with the necessary data and tools specific to making their job easier and more efficient. By providing teams with cross-department data and tools specific to their function, organisations create a better experience throughout the Customer Journey and achieve better ROI on software investment overall.

Strengthening Sales & Support

Due to to the time and attention reps spend building relationships with customers and the many emails, phone calls and visits required to close sales. Reps generally have a better understanding of customers requirements and the specific details of products or services they use in comparison to support/service staff.

During support enquiries, customers expect the same personalised experience and high level of service they receive during the sales process.

Once a rep has built a strong relationship with a customer, the customer can often feel betrayed if support/aftercare are unable to provide the same level of experience.

A positive support experience builds trust and strengthens the relationship with the customer whereas bad support can leave customers feeling like they only receive a good experience during the sales process.

To avoid this issue, it is vital to ensure support staff have the necessary data and software they require to deliver on sales reps promises. This means being able to organise, prioritise and resolve issues as quickly as possible. Resulting in long-lasting customer relationships while ensuring reps are undisrupted and focused on selling.

Sugar Sell & Sugar Serve

In a bid to provide specific functionality to empower support staff and strengthen the communication between sales and support teams, Sugar introduced Sugar Serve as part of ‘The New Sugar’ (as a separate licensing option in 2019.) With Sugar Sell (Sugar’s cloud-based CRM) and Sugar Market (Sugar’s All-in-one Marketing Automation Solution) completing the trio.

Click here to learn more about ‘The New Sugar’.

Sugar Sell licenses harness advanced opportunity management features such as ()  With Sugar Serve licenses, this functionality is replaced with advanced Service Management functionality such as the Self Service Portal and Intelligent Case Rerouting.

Sugar Sell – The award-winning sales automation solution renowned for its intuitive user interface, extensibility, and customer satisfaction.

Sugar Sell Key Features

• Optimised for Sales professionals
• Advanced Reporting and Customisable Dashboards
• SugarBPM Advanced Workflows
• Accurate Forecasting
• 360-degree Customer View
• Easy Access to Product Catalogues
• Intuitive UI

Sugar Serve – Sugar’s new customer engagement centre solution designed to streamline case management and issue resolution.

Sugar Serve Key Features

• Optimised for Support/Customer Service professionals
• Advanced Reporting and Customisable Dashboards
• Time-aware Case Tracking
• Case Prioritisation
• 360-degree Customer View
• Intelligent Case Management
• Self Service Portal
• Knowledge Management
• Intuitive UI

Both licensing options are built on Sugar’s core CRM user interface, function the same in many ways and integrate seamlessly as a result. Leveraging Sell and Serve licenses results in a constant flow of Data and Insights between Sales and Support teams. Resulting in a complete customer view and stronger customer relationships overall.

As a vendor, Sugar pays close attention to customers requirements with a strong focus on innovation across the platform. Sugar regularly release innovative features independent to Market, Sell and Serve which increases Sugar’s ability to future proof each solution.

Other CRM’s on the market require heavy configuration to deliver a solution optimised for support cases like Sugar Serve, Sugar provides Serve as an out of the box licensing option with reduced pricing for users who require access to both Sell and Serve license types.

Concluding Thoughts

Leveraging Sugar Sell and sugar Serve licenses across your Sales & Support departments helps organisations create better Customer Experience and deliver better ROI on software investment.

Combining Sell and Serve licenses makes it easier than ever to create a bidirectional stream of data between Sales and Support without disrupting each department’s main focus. Allowing reps to focus on selling while empowering support staff with advanced features optimised for case handling results in a high level of customer experience throughout the customer journey. Ultimately resulting in satisfied customers and long-lasting customer relationships.

Key benefits

• Bidirectional Data Streaming between Sales & Support
• Advanced Insights across departments
• Faster Support Case resolutions
• Licence types specific to each department
• Seamless Integration
• Reduced pricing for combined licenses
• Continuous Innovation across the platform

If you would like to take a closer look at Sugar Sell or Sugar Serve please get in contact with one of our SugarCRM Consultants by clicking the link below to arrange a free screen-share demonstration.

Schedule a Free Sugar Sell/Sugar Serve Demonstration

The post Sugar Sell & Sugar Serve – Collaborating for Better Customer Experience appeared first on Sugabyte.

In this post, we explore the changes users can expect in the SugarCRM Version 10 (Q2 2020) Update.

Sugars Version 10 update applies to Sugar Professional, Sugar Enterprise, Sugar Sell and Sugar Serve Users. If you are hosted with Sugar you will receive this update within the next week, if you are hosted on-site or with a partner you will be receiving this update shortly too.

Due to the large volume of SugarCRM Support tickets from our customers regarding the new layout (and how to fix a few things) we’ve created this short video explaining the new User Interface changes and how to configure them.

There is one particular change to Sugars UI you may want to revert from.

Watch our video below to find out how or follow the step by step instructions in this post.

SugarCRM Version 10 User Interface Changes

Let’s take a look at the Record View in Sugar which is where you will notice the biggest changes to the User Interface.

Side by side Field Name Placement

What we see now is the field label and value displayed side by side whereas, in previous versions of Sugar, field names were displayed above the field.

This is Sugar’s attempt to consolidate the view and make it easier for you to read and display a certain number of fields on your layout.

One downside to the side by side field name view is any field names that exceed the character limit will be cut short to fit on the row. This means field names may not be displayed correctly on your current layout.

How to Change Field Name Placement in SugarCRM

Step 1

Navigate to your User Profile in Sugar at the top right of your screen.

Once in ‘Edit’ mode select the ‘Advanced’ tab.

Step 3

Select your desired field name placement to change how field names are displayed in your layout.

Step 4

Navigate to a record in Sugar and you will notice field names are now positioned ‘Above Field Value’.

New Pill View for Empty Field Values

Filler Field Alignment

In a bid to condense the User Interface layout. Sugar has introduced a new feature that automatically realigns ‘Filler Fields’ on your layout. This is to help users create a more condensed layout at Record View.

If you were previously using filler fields to structure rows in your layout, you’ll want to know how to restructure your layout for the alignment you require.

(Example of ‘Filler Fields’ displayed in the new UI – (Left) Design View / (Right) Record View)

To change the layout and expand a field to cover the entire row, head to ‘Studio’ to edit the ‘Record View Layout’.

Now, the ‘Website’ field is displayed on its own row and the ‘Account Name’ and ‘Business Centre’ fields are displayed on a separate row below.

Preview View Layout

Another handy update to the UI in Sugar’s Version 10 release is the ability to edit the ‘Preview View’ layout.

In previous Sugar versions, the Preview View displayed the same layout as the Record View. Users can now edit the Preview View to display a different layout.

To make changes to the Preview View layout in Sugar, open ‘Studio’, choose the module you want to edit, select ‘Layouts’ and ‘Preview View’ from the Layouts dropdown.

Now you can change the display in the preview by rearranging fields to create your desired layout.

Tile View added to the Leads Module

The final change to Sugars UI in Version 10 is the addition of the Tile View in the Leads module. The Tile View allows you to ‘drag and drop’ records as they progress through stages. For example, progressing a Lead Record from a status of ‘New Lead’ > ‘Assigned to User’.

To amend the Tile View click on your User Profile, go to ‘Admin’ and select ‘Tile View Settings’

This is where you can select which modules have Tile View enabled, make changes to the Table Header, hide field values, amend the Operation Header and select how rows are displayed on the view.

SugarCRM Version 10 Update Concluding Thoughts

We hope you found this post useful. In this version update, there are some great additions to Sugar’s User Interface that make navigating through Sugar and configuring your layouts to support your daily tasks even easier. Follow the steps in our video or instructions in this post to make changes to your layout.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us should you require any further information and we will be more than happy to help you!

For the full list of updates included in Sugar’s Version 10 (Q2 2020) Release, read our post below!

SugarCRM Version 10.0.0 (Q2 2020) Release Notes

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The post SugarCRM Version 10 (Q2 2020) Update – User Interface Review appeared first on Sugabyte.

This release addresses issues identified in prior releases. Please review the 10.0.0 release notes using the following links to learn more about the variety of fixes included in this release:

Customers who are upgrading to 10.0.0 (Q2 2020) from 9.3 (Winter ’20) should refer to the following sections:

• Feature Enhancements When Upgrading From 9.3 (Winter ’20)
• Fixed Issues When Upgrading From 9.3 (Winter ’20)
• Developer Notes for Upgrading From 9.3 (Winter ’20)
• Known Issues
• Upgrade Paths

For information about this release’s changes to existing functionality, please refer to the What to Expect When Upgrading to 10.0 article.

If you require any further information regarding upgrading to Version 10.0.0 please click the link below to get in contact with us!

Request Upgrade Assistance

The post SugarCRM Version 10.0.0 (Q2 2020) Release Notes appeared first on Sugabyte.