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SugarCRM Marks Triumphant Decade of CRM TransformationCUPERTINO, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- SugarCRM Inc., the company that enables businesses to create extraordinary customer relationships with the most innovative and affordable CRM solution in the market, closes Q2 2014 marking 19 consecutive quarters of growth and 10 years of business leadership in CRM. Guided by a strong vision to empower the individual, buoyed by the industry's most innovative and affordable CRM solution in the market and an ever-growing global customer base, SugarCRM (News - Alert) is well-positioned to further capitalize on the fastest-growing sector in enterprise software in the coming years. 2004: CRM Industry Gets a Taste of Sugar Ten years ago, SugarCRM Co-Founder and CTO Clint Oram was determined to fix what he saw as a fatal flaw in conventional CRM solutions: Sales and support teams did not like using them and they were too expensive to put in the hands of every customer-facing employee. SugarCRM was founded to help solve these critical issues and has always fundamentally believed customer relationship management is more than marketing, sales force or customer support automation. The CRM industry got its first taste of Sugar in July 2004 with the launch of SugarCRM's flagship product and a $2 million funding round. The company signed its first customers later that same year - several of which still remain as valued SugarCRM customers. Today, SugarCRM offers a completely revamped version of its flagship product, and is known industry-wide for putting the individual - the "i" - in CRM and empowering employees at all levels of a customer-centric organization to better understand and connect with customers over their entire lifecycle. "SugarCRM's 10-year anniversary is a very special and exciting milestone, and without a doubt it's been a thrilling decade of transformation," said Oram. "As co-founder, I helped turn a new idea into a fledgling company, and now to a thriving business that empowers an entire market. We are proud of building a world-class team, innovative technology and an impressive list of marquee customers that welcome our disruptive value proposition. As we begin another decade, we look forward to a deeper focus on helping sellers to sell and customer service representatives to deliver extraordinary customer service." Accelerated Growth, Strong Collaboration in a Thriving Market Today, SugarCRM places the individual customer at the center of its solution-enabling highly personalized customer interactions and valuable customer insights that drive customer excellence and retention. SugarCRM's new iCRM movement has indeed gained traction in the market and drawn industry acclaim as well as new customers and alliances. Undoubtedly, the past couple of years have been especially favorable for SugarCRM. In Q2 2014, the company marked 19 consecutive quarters f growth and reported a 30 percent annual increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR). In the first half of 2014 alone, SugarCRM signed a record total of more than 1,000 new customers, bringing its current total to nearly 7,500 -with more than 1.5 million end users worldwide. Companies such as Reebok, Sennheiser, Wilson Sporting Goods, Mitsubishi (News - Alert) Motors Brazil and Seguros Monterrey New York Life rely on Sugar to deliver extraordinary customer relationships. "Congratulations to SugarCRM on this special corporate milestone," said Martin Ruiz, CIO, Seguros Monterrey New York Life. "I look forward to ongoing collaboration with the team as the company continues to innovate and bring new thinking to the CRM space." Market Traction Fuels Stellar Growth, Industry Recognition Gartner (News - Alert) predicts that CRM will represent the largest segment of enterprise software spend by 2017, growing to a $36.5 billion worldwide market. The investor community recognizes that SugarCRM will claim a sizeable part of this opportunity, thanks to its unique value proposition. Nearly a year ago, Goldman Sachs led a $40 million funding round for SugarCRM that closed in August 2013. For two consecutive years, Gartner named SugarCRM a "Visionary" in its Magic Quadrant in both 2013 and 2014- a highly coveted position and ranking from a leading analyst research firm. This year, Ovum (News - Alert) Research lent further credence to SugarCRM's mission by proclaiming 2014 the year that company leaders will finally embrace the need for a new CRM customer strategy that includes each customer-facing employee. On the awards front, SugarCRM was honored with the CRM Excellence award by Customer Magazine in May 2014, and the following month was named to AlwaysOn's 2014 OnDemand Top 100 list as one of the most promising private companies in the on-demand, cloud and SaaS (News - Alert) categories. "SugarCRM was one of the first front-office application providers to build its business on top of a commercial open source model - but what makes SugarCRM unique today is that it is one of the few providers focused only on core CRM," said Paul Greenberg, president of the 56 Group and author of CRM at the Speed of Light. "In the past 10 years, Sugar has grown into a comprehensive and flexible CRM platform, one that focuses on personalization and usability for individual users in an innovative manner." SugarCRM and the Decade Ahead All of the significant technology shifts - from social, cloud and mobile to big data - have converged to create the most exciting time in CRM's history. With a strong market forecasted by leading research firms and continued company growth, SugarCRM is well-positioned for a successful decade ahead. The company's primary focus remains rooted in empowering every customer-facing individual and every business to successfully manage their customer life cycle by providing high-value customer insights and helping them deliver extraordinary customer interactions. "SugarCRM's successes over the past 10 years can be attributed to a relentless drive to realize the full potential of CRM," said Larry Augustin, SugarCRM CEO. "We are laser focused on delivering an innovative CRM solution designed for every individual, not just the management team. Today, we can truly say we are delivering on the promise of CRM, helping businesses acquire, manage and retain customers throughout every stage of their journey-and positioning SugarCRM to make an indelible mark on the highest growth market in enterprise software." About SugarCRM SugarCRM enables businesses to create extraordinary customer relationships with the most innovative and affordable customer relationship management (CRM) solution on the market. By placing the individual at the center of its solution, SugarCRM is putting the "i" in CRM and empowering people at all levels of an organization to better understand and engage with customers. Based in Silicon Valley, SugarCRM is backed by Goldman Sachs, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, NEA, and Walden International. More than 1.5M individuals in 120 countries rely on SugarCRM. To learn more visit SugarCRM or follow @SugarCRM. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 relating to, among other things, expectations, plans, prospects and financial results for SugarCRM, including, but not limited to, our expectations regarding our products, market demand, future revenue, and market share growth. These forward-looking statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of SugarCRM's management as of the date of this press release, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date thereof, and SugarCRM disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. NOTE: SugarCRM and the SugarCRM logo are service marks of SugarCRM Inc. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
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