What Should You Ask the SugarConnection Paris Sponsors?

We’re now less than a week away from SugarConnection Paris, and everyone is excited. In fact, when we sent out a call for sponsors to participate in the event, we were overwhelmed by how quickly those spots were booked.

You may be wondering: why the eagerness to participate in next week’s event? 

Well, we decided to get the answer to that question by interviewing the sponsors themselves. And so, without further ado, here’s your introduction to next week’s sponsorship panel. If you’re going to be at SugarConnection Paris, we strongly recommend reading this post all the way to the end before you arrive on 23 October.

What makes SugarConnection Paris sponsors unique?

First things first: It’s important to know that members of the Sugar Partner network who will have booths at SugarConnection Paris are not your typical event sponsors. Our team was very deliberate in selecting companies that have been a part of the Sugar network for years, as many of our customers have been with us equally as long. (In fact, Sugar’s longest customer of record, whose been with the platform for 15 years, will be in attendance.) So when we say these sponsors can offer advantages you won’t find elsewhere, we’re talking about the kind of deep expertise that can only come from long-standing collaboration. 

But amidst all of the software options for marketing, sales and service, what was it that made these partners decide to join forces with Sugar? When answering this question, the words sponsors used most frequently was “flexibility” and “cooperation.”

As Mr. Hussain Nasir of Rolustech describes it:

“SugarCRM is one of the best CRM platforms in the market, which makes it an excellent fit for a range of different businesses. After finding that a number of our clients were thoroughly satisfied with their Sugar implementations, we readily decided to become a Sugar Partner in the early days of our startup stage.”

Other partners agree. 

Mrs. Zlatyslava Topchyi, Marketing Manager at Integros, says her company decided to use Sugar when they first started searching for an open and flexible CRM platform.

“We do believe that every customer is unique in their own way, and this uniqueness needs to be reflected in their system. Sugar was and still is the best choice.”

At Insignio, a similar process began when the company’s managing director first came across Sugar during his time as a CRM consultant back in 2005. 

“Sugar was extremely interesting and flexible, and has remained so to this day,” says CEO Mr. Mirco Müller. “Over time we have acquired an expertise in Sugar that we are truly proud of.”

But while flexibility played a major role in each sponsor’s original decision to work with Sugar, it certainly wasn’t the only factor. For many partners, it all came down to the company’s vision.

“We started to work with Sugar’s founders for one main reason: they built a new vision for CRM,” explains Mr. Stéphane Calimodio, who serves as the general manager in charge of CRM activity at Synolia. “We thought it was going to become a success because it met the expectations of both our customers and our internal experts.”

The team at Fellow Consulting AG shared similar sentiments:

“In the past we had been in partnerships with other big vendors, which was not always that easy depending on the architecture and framework,” says Mr. Manuel Kanka, who notes that the decision to focus on Sugar was inspired by the platform’s flexibility and customizability. “Now that Sugar’s roadmap consists of cutting-edge technology and a focus on CX, the vision is very similar to ours.”

Representatives from Magic Software and Ambit Software concur.

“Magic became aware of Sugar through a joint customer, and we recognized it as a very promising and growing market,” says Marketing Manager Pascal Rawsin. “Our joint success has proved us right.”

“We had partnerships with other CRM products initially but found them lacking in innovation, ease-of-use and scalability,” explains Ambit Software Director Mr. Jenit Ramaiya. “We came across Sugar a few years ago and found it fit those gaps perfectly.”

How are these partners helping Sugar customers exceed their goals?

Some sponsors specialize in software and specialty integrations; others focus heavily on configurations. All of them help companies get as much as possible out of their Customer Experience (CX) platforms by configuring the system to each business’s exact needs.

In fact, Sugar is so deeply embedded in partner solutions that several sponsors say their companies would cease to exist in their current formats without the power of Sugar’s CX platform. To better understand how each firm helps businesses succeed, we asked them:

What is the most common challenge customers are looking to solve when they come to you, and how do you help solve it? Here’s what they had to say:

Ambit Software: The most common challenge faced by our customers, primarily medium businesses to large enterprises, is achieving a 360-degree view of the customer. This involves integrating the CRM system with myriad back-office and front-office systems such as ERP, e-commerce software, call center systems, business intelligence platforms and more. Ambit has a lot of technical expertise in integrating SugarCRM with different systems, as well as significant expertise in creating much-needed, holistic views of the customer.

Fellow Consulting: One big challenge is to create an extraordinary customer experience throughout the entire customer journey. We help by identifying the most important touchpoints, and by providing guidance and best practices for all industries. Another issue many companies face is syncing various data sources. We help get the data and relevant information to a point where the actual users are happy to use the system, and can both see and understand the benefits.

Insignio: The one thing all our customers want is an easy-to-use system that can basically do everything: manage customers and sales opportunities, and much more. The challenge is to find the best possible solution for all parties involved. We respond individually to each customer’s concerns and also talk to the employees and ask them about their ideas and wishes. We then bring together the requirements and ideas of decision-makers with the demands and wishes of employees. This is more difficult than it sounds, because the requirements often differ greatly. Decision-makers want to control, steer and collect information. But users want more than just “entering data.” Being able to reconcile this is something we’ve gained a lot of experience in. As a result, we’re able to offer great value.

Integros: In most cases, our customers look for a solution that can support their unique approaches to working with customers while improving employee efficiency.

Magic Software: Customers are looking for a simple and fast way to connect and integrate their data, systems and applications without having to write code. Our integration platform provides a fast and simple solution—one that enables customers to exchange data in real-time between and automate processes. Thanks to drag-and-drop editors, there’s no need for them to have in-house development skills.

Rolustech: We assist a range of different customers with development, customization, integration and consulting expertise. We help each company tailor their system to their needs. We often integrate with a host of third-party platforms and even develop amazing Sugar plugins that help our customers hit the ground running.

Synolia: Our customers always look at the best way to grow their businesses successfully. They ask us to help them by implementing the best customer experience platform we can. CX (customer experience) is one of the most reliable ways for businesses to be successful, and our job with Sugar is to offer them the ideal setup for achieving their unique target goals.

What can you learn from the sponsors at SugarConnection Paris?

Trust us: this is one time you definitely won’t want to skip the sponsorship booths. SugarConnection Paris is your chance to get to know some key members of our partner network.

Not sure what to ask? Here’s what the partners recommend:

• Ambit Software: “Can we see a live demo of your new voice assistant for Sugar? And how can we sign up for an exclusive six-month free trial today?”
• Fellow Consulting: “How can I improve the experience of my customers,” or “What can I do to really know my customers?”
• Insignio: “Show me Active Sales!”
• Integros: “How can we get more from our investment in Sugar with your solutions?”
• Magic Software: “What is the business benefit of integrating my Sugar?”
• Rolustech: “Can you show me your most exciting new products? Specifically, I’d like to see the new SugarAlexa, SalesMap Mobile App and SugarBoards.”
• Synolia: “Can you teach me some French words?” (This booth will come in especially handy in Paris!)

Where would our sponsors be without Sugar?

Last but far from least, we asked our sponsors to imagine a world where Sugar did not exist. Without hesitation, they all predicted that life would be boring, flavorless and not nearly as sweet.

“Without Sugar, there would be no Insignio CRM,” Müller says. “That sounds quite extreme, but it is (probably) true. There might be a smaller version of our company, but we would not have been as successful since Insignio CRM specializes in Sugar. It’s as simple as that.”

Magic Software takes this one step further by explaining that it would be much more difficult to understand the customer. “Without Sugar, we would not be able to provide value to our customers based on their specific needs and preferences,” says Pascal. 

“Even ERP systems cannot provide the same 360-degree view,” adds Ramaiya. “Without Sugar, it would be impossible.”

All seven partners who took part in this Q&A will be at SugarConnection Paris on October 23, 2019. Be sure to stop by their booths to get answers to your most pressing questions in person. They can’t wait to meet you!