SugarCRM 4.5 has plenty of Ajax goodies. Which is good as it helps in getting impatient sales folks in front of the screen. Besides that there is not much to talk about in the new release. Long time back somebody blasted Siebel for being too expensive for charging millions of dollars.

CRM is still considered a database entry screen with very minimal transaction and back-office integration. Open source or not the real challenge is in improving the very sales process.

Quick script check for what they added in the 4.5 release:

CREATE TABLE `saved_search` (
`id` varchar(36) NOT NULL default ”,
`name` varchar(150) default NULL,
`search_module` varchar(150) default NULL,
`deleted` tinyint(1) NOT NULL default ‘0′,
`date_entered` datetime NOT NULL default ‘0000-00-00 00:00:00′,
`date_modified` datetime NOT NULL default ‘0000-00-00 00:00:00′,
`assigned_user_id` varchar(36) default NULL,
`contents` text,
`description` text,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `idx_desc` (`name`,`deleted`)) DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

– session
CREATE TABLE `session_active` (
`id` varchar(36) NOT NULL default ”,
`session_id` varchar(100) default NULL,
`last_request_time` datetime default NULL,
`session_type` varchar(100) default NULL,
`is_violation` tinyint(1) default ‘0′,
`num_active_sessions` int(11) default ‘0′,
`date_entered` datetime default NULL,
`date_modified` datetime default NULL,
`deleted` tinyint(1) NOT NULL default ‘0′,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
UNIQUE KEY `idx_session_id` (`session_id`)) DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

– Table structure for table `session_history`
CREATE TABLE `session_history` (
`id` varchar(36) NOT NULL default ”,
`session_id` varchar(100) default NULL,
`date_entered` datetime default NULL,
`date_modified` datetime default NULL,
`last_request_time` datetime default NULL,
`session_type` varchar(100) default NULL,
`is_violation` tinyint(1) default ‘0′,
`num_active_sessions` int(11) default ‘0′,
`deleted` tinyint(1) NOT NULL default ‘0′,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)) DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

So not many new domain specific additions but mainly user interface and saved search (this is a good addition - poor man’s reporting tool).

Where is the strategy to take on Apex (this offering will ride on the hype and eventually get vendor support) using open source community? By locking workflow in the proprietary license they are blocking one critical component which can be crucial in making SugarCRM a real application development platform.

Very soon they will be competing against Coghead, Teqlo, and other “assembly” oriented companies.

SugarCRM needs to get out of I-want-to-be-Salesforce when I grow up mindset and focus on key community innovation.