SugarCRM announced Sugar Express, a low-cost, on-demand offering for individuals and small businesses around the world. Sugar Express addresses SugarCRM open source users’ demand for an affordable solution that runs on SugarCRM’s global on-demand computing platform – the Sugar Open Cloud.

Sugar Express delivers core sales, marketing, and support features, complete with Sugar Plug-Ins for Microsoft Office and access to SugarCRM Customer Support. Platform functionality includes Module Builder to create custom modules and Cloud Connectors to integrate third-party data services from companies such as Hoover’s and Jigsaw. Sugar Express is offered as an annual subscription at $499 for up to five users or $799 for up to ten users per year.

Open Source and On-Demand Converge in the Open Cloud
Sugar Express and the Sugar Open Cloud represent the convergence of open source and on-demand computing. For over five years, SugarCRM’s commercial open source model has nurtured one of the fastest-growing CRM products in history. Currently, over 60,000 businesses and 550,000 users around the world rely on SugarCRM to manage customers. Concurrently, SugarCRM has invested heavily in an on-demand architecture that preserves the flexibility and choice that customers expect from open source solutions.

“For all of its promise, the cloud computing movement is in danger of becoming yet another mousetrap to lock-in customers to proprietary vendors,” said John Roberts, CEO of SugarCRM. “Sugar Express and the Sugar Open Cloud marry the seamless maintenance and deployment of on-demand computing with the values of open source: openness, portability and flexibility.”

Elements of the Sugar Open Cloud
The Sugar Open Cloud is a global cloud computing platform for managing SugarCRM and other applications and extensions. Key elements of the Sugar Open Cloud include:

• Application Delivery – Multi-instance architecture for automated instance provisioning, configuration, and maintenance, with instant-on deployment that requires only a web browser.
• Integration Services – Support for Web services for the exchange and consumption of application and data services from around the Web.
• Open Source and Standards – Built entirely on a modern, open source infrastructure, adhering to standards that ensure portability, low-cost and no vendor lock-in.
• Secure and Fault-Tolerant – Employs world-class data centers to ensure security, redundancy and high-availability.
• Distributed Global Monitoring – Utilizes 24x7 monitoring from both within and outside the Sugar Open Cloud to ensure continual delivery of high-speed performance.

“The benefits of software-as-a-service (SaaS) have been clear for several years,” says Denis Pombriant, founder and principal analyst at Beagle Research Group. “The flexibility offered by SugarCRM's Open Cloud gives customers all the promise of SaaS plus the added benefits of portability and greater interoperability.”

Twice the Value for One Price
The introduction of the Sugar Open Cloud allows SugarCRM to offer an industry-first; unified pricing for all three of its commercial products – Express, Professional and Enterprise – regardless of deployment option. Beginning today, Sugar Professional will be offered at $30 per user per month and Sugar Enterprise will be offered at $50 per user per month. Upon purchase, customers gain immediate access to their Sugar products on the Sugar Open Cloud along with a download key to deploy products in-house or in other cloud environments. Sugar customers are therefore freed from the vendor lock-in that characterizes other cloud providers while benefitting from SugarCRM’s unrivalled portability and flexibility.

For more information, please visit www.sugarcrm.com. For a 30-day trial, please visit http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/ondemand_eval.html or to buy Sugar Express today, please visit https://www.sugarcrm.com/sugarshop/home.php.