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SugarCRM

Continues its Momentum in Q2 with Explosive Billings Growth in EMEA and the Addition of Top Talent

London — August 8th, 2011 — SugarCRM, the world’s fastest-growing customer relationship management (CRM) company, said its billings and customer numbers in Europe surged during the second quarter of 2011, with billings swelling by 65 percent over the same quarter in 2010 and approximately 200 new customers embracing SugarCRM as their customer management platform.

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“The numbers for the first half of 2011 show how perfectly suited Sugar is to the European market,” said Tom Schuster, vice president and general manager of EMEA for SugarCRM. “And it’s not just the revenue numbers. Since January, the number of sales channel partners working with Sugar has increased by 60 percent, and we’ve seen the same percentage of growth in new customers.”

In response, the number of SugarCRM employees in Europe has expanded by a factor of five. “We are now poised to continue this growth well into the future,” said Schuster.

The numbers in Europe reflect the company’s explosive global growth, which saw billings leap 58 percent over the same quarter in 2010 and grow 21 percent from the first quarter of 2011. North American billings rose by 63 percent over the same quarter in 2010 and the Rest of the World (ROW) region grew by 30 percent. It also marked the company’s third consecutive cash-positive quarter.

“The velocity at which SugarCRM is attracting new customers in Europe and around the world is a testimony to both the completeness of the product and its flexibility to adapt to unique local business conditions,” said Larry Augustin, chief executive officer. “It’s also an indication of the momentum Sugar has built in the market over the last year.”

As its European staff was expanded, Sugar also added Andrew Chmyz as chief financial officer. Chmyz brings with him experience as CFO at publicly-traded software company Marimba, CRM vendor Medallia and other technology companies, as well as strong operating experience from his role as chief operating officer at Concentric Medical, where he launched their international sales operations.

“Joining SugarCRM now in the midst of this growth is incredibly exciting,” Chmyz said. “I’m looking forward to making my contribution to the company’s story as it grows and continues to earn loyal users.”

Growth in Asia-Pacific led to the arrival of Tony Hughes as managing director of SugarCRM Australia Pty. Ltd. A recognized thought leader in the technology and software industries in Australia, Tony also created the unique sales methodology that he described in his book, The Joshua Principle: Leadership Secrets of RSVPselling.

“There’s a growing segment of businesses in Asia and Australia that are clamoring for CRM as they grow and add customers,” said Hughes. “Flexibility and affordability are watchwords, and that’s what SugarCRM delivers.”

SugarCRM

Another continuing pattern is the growth of SugarCRM’s sales channel partners. In the second quarter, Sugar gained 25 new partners – including 10 in the EMEA Region – raising the total of partners worldwide to 288. That number is one-third higher than the number of SugarCRM partners at the end of the second quarter of last year.

“We depend on our partners to create momentum for the entire SugarCRM ecosystem,” said Jeffrey Campbell, vice president of worldwide sales and customer advocacy. “Their reach and expertise — in addition to their creativity and their ability to distill real business needs for their end-user customers — give users real competitive advantage tailored to the needs of their businesses and their geographic regions.”

“Partnering with Sugar provides us with a great CRM product and the flexibility to fine-tune the solution for our customers,” said Gary Cullen, sales director at Provident CRM, a reseller based in Dublin, Ireland and Manchester in the United Kingdom. “It allows us to satisfy the customer’s specific needs, and it lets us do it in a way that’s easy and cost-effective for use at the same time.”

“We looked at a variety of other providers before deciding on Sugar, weighing all aspects from user-friendliness to price,” said Audra Oliver, head of marketing communications at King Worldwide, a global financial communications and stakeholder management firm. “Sugar has exceeded our expectations on all fronts and provided us with a tailored CRM solution for our complex requirements. Not only is their team helpful, knowledgeable, and available, the product itself is a joy to use.”

SugarCRM makes CRM Simple. As the world's fastest growing customer relationship management (CRM) company, SugarCRM applications have been downloaded more than seven million times and currently serve over 800,000 end users in 80 languages. Over 7,000 customers have chosen SugarCRM's On-Site and Cloud Computing services over proprietary alternatives. SugarCRM has been recognized for its customer success and product innovation by CRM Magazine, InfoWorld, Customer Interaction Solutions and Intelligent Enterprise.


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