SugarCRM Adds Marketing Automation

CRM vendor acquires Salesfusion to expand capabilities in customer experience management

In an ongoing bid to build an end-to-end suite of customer experience management tools, SugarCRM is buying marketing automation vendor Salesfusion. The addition of the application vendor’s capabilities will fill a gap in SugarCRM’s customer outreach and communications.

The Lowdown:  The Salesfusion marketing automation platform gives SugarCRM the ability to extend its customer relationship management core to include complementary capabilities in personalized messaging, demand generation management, and sales and communications intelligence.

The Details:  SugarCRM says it plans to operate Salesfusion as a stand-alone product. It will make investments to integrate Salesfusion functionality into its CRM platform, providing customers with the option of seamless end-to-end management of customer experience.

Background:  Salesfusion is the second acquisition by SugarCRM in the past three months. Previously, SugarCRM bought Collabspot, a provider of e-mail integration products and services. SugarCRM is following other CRM vendors in extending its core capabilities by adding marketing, sales management, and intelligence products to its portfolios.

The Buzz:  “Modern companies expect more than just technology solutions. They want a personal relationship with the companies where they conduct business. With Salesfusion, we’re taking our market-leading CRM to the next level, harnessing Salesfusion’s advanced marketing automation capabilities to streamline campaign management, drive personalized engagement, improve conversion and transform customer experience throughout the customer journey,” said SugarCRM CEO Craig Charlton. “Together, we’re enabling marketing, sales, and service professionals to be more productive, take action on customer insights, and focus on high-impact value-added offerings that create relentlessly relevant customer experiences.”

“Sugar and Salesfusion share a common vision that the next wave of innovation in B2B is sharply focused on the customer experience,” said Salesfusion CEO Logan Henderson. “The fact is that customer experience leaders significantly outperform their peers, generating higher average order values, better customer retention and satisfaction, and significantly improved brand awareness.”

“Adding Salesfusion’s powerful marketing automation solution to Sugar’s market-leading CRM enables an unequaled and comprehensive customer experience solution for companies everywhere,” said Christian Wettre, president of W-Systems, a current SugarCRM partner. “We’re proud to be able to offer such a cutting-edge platform that will not only help our customers drive more revenue, but simplify their operations as well.”

“SugarCRM’s acquisition of Salesfusion complements a market leader in easy-to-use CRM with the comprehensive marketing automation capabilities of Salesfusion. A tightly integrated platform will accelerate time to value and increase both sales and marketing productivity by streamlining campaign creation, lead nurturing, and the handoff to sales,” said Rebecca Wetteman, vice president of market research firm Nucleus Research. “Both Sugar and Salesfusion’s focus on delivering value to customers make this a good match, and integration of the two will deliver even greater benefit for customers.”