"Ease of use." It's the new mantra for open source CRM provider SugarCRM's (News - Alert) latest CRM release.

"This is really focused on speed and simplicity," Clint Oram, SugarCRM co-founder and vice president of products told industry observer Rick Whiting recently. Sugar 6 is now in beta and is scheduled for general availability in July, Whiting noted.

Sugar 6 sports what Whiting describes as "an overhauled user interface -- the first significant update to the UI since the product's initial release more than five years ago -- and other improvements such as a shortcut bar at the top of the window that makes it easier to navigate through the application in fewer clicks," citing Oram's description.

SugarCRM officials think that simplicity "will be a big selling point for SugarCRM's 250 channel partners," according to Larry Augustin, SugarCRM's CEO, in an interview with Whiting at SugarCon, the vendor's recent customer and developer conference in San Francisco.

Industry observer Alex Woodie wrote that Sugar 6 will have a PHP application that can run under i/OS - and includes "a revamped GUI, easier installation, and better integration with mobile devices."

"They see opportunities for a big improvement in [return on investment] for their customers," Augustin told Whiting, adding that SugarCRM offers an open-source "community" version of the application and sells an enterprise edition of the product.

Company officials say Sugar 6's enhanced UI improves the application's interoperability with other Web applications and mobile devices -- "Sugar 6 delivers a look, feel and user experience that consumers of popular social networking and other collaboration tools will appreciate," Whiting quotes Augustin as saying.

As Woodie says, "The company is touting a clean, bold user interface that it says will allow users to perform tasks more easily, while simultaneously increasing the information density of each screen."

The new shortcut bar? Evidently users can log a meeting or call, create an account, contact or sales opportunity within the application with the proverbial one click. The bar also has a global search field, Whiting says, "filtering results based on the Sugar 6 module in use, such as Contacts, Opportunities and Accounts, and offers up the results without leaving the page."

Sugar 6 also includes native application support for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry (News - Alert) smartphones, using development technology from Appcelerator. And it'll be one of the first native applications on the market for the iPad, Whiting adds.