SugarCRM, the Silicon Valley-based provider of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven platform for customer relationship management (CRM), enjoyed a banner year as it reported double-digit growth in attracting new customers, a triple-digit surge in other Sugar offerings, new partnerships around the world, and a string of industry awards for CRM excellence.

In the key CRM success indicator of customer wins, Sugar is reporting a 59% year-over-year upturn in the number of new customers that the company acquired during fiscal 2022 for the 12-month period from February 2021 to January 2022. SugarCRM executives attribute the firm’s strong growth rate to a combination of internal and external factors. During the past year, the company sought better ways of communicating with its customers in the wake of a completely transformed business landscape and the closure of traditional forms of communication because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SugarCRM also sharpened its focus by doubling down on the middle market, instead of trying to serve the full spectrum of the market that extended from small and medium-sized businesses all the way to large-scale enterprise operations. 

The double-digit growth in new customers is complemented by a triple-digit increase in SugarCRM’s other offerings. The company recorded an uptick in orders of 120% for its unified platform empowering sales, marketing, and service professionals; 154% growth in annualized terms for Sugar Serve, an automated customer service support solution with self-service portals for customers to find the answers they need without having to call support phone numbers; and year-over-year growth of 108% in Sugar Sell, the company’s solution to keep customer data organized and provide analysis and direction on increasing sales.

International Growth and New Partnerships

A part of SugarCRM’s rapid growth for fiscal 2022 also derives from the strong performance of its international markets, with more than half of the company’s new clients in fiscal 2022 coming from outside North America, where the company is headquartered in Cupertino, California. SugarCRM signed many new reseller and integration partners during the past year in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, according to the company, including its most recent deal with Redington Gulf, the largest distributor of IT products in the Middle East and Africa, with headquarters in the United Arab Emirates.

The deal calls for Redington to distribute the full SugarCRM solution portfolio for sales, marketing, and customer service in the Middle East, a region where Redington has more than 15,000 customers. SugarCRM will offer the Middle East both cloud and on-premises solutions—a key benefit given that rival CRM providers offer only a cloud version, which is not viable for customers in the Middle East.

Industry Awards and Recognition

SugarCRM’s big year also includes a slew of awards for the company, including Best Overall CRM Solution in the Martech Breakthrough Awards of 2021, and Product of the Year in the Sales and Marketing Technology Awards of 2021. SugarCRM is also the winner in four other programs: the 2021 Stevie American Business Awards, 2021 CRM Excellence Award, 2022 CX Today CX Awards, and 2022 CRM Watchlist.

Among consumers, the company’s achievement of a Net Promoter Score of 90+ during the past year indicates a level of customer satisfaction much higher than the industry average for CRM or software as a service (SaaS) solutions.

Craig Charlton, CEO at SugarCRM, says the company’s future is strong, and the organization is confident about continued business growth and momentum across its key solutions and target markets. “Market dynamics have shifted during the pandemic, and savvy companies are retooling to reap the competitive advantage that comes from a high-definition customer experience,” Charlton says. “Sugar continues to expand to support these needs, helping our clients create customers for life.”

The Road to Success for This Year

Following a productive fiscal 2022, the company has various vehicles that it can deploy to continue thriving this year, says Sarita Kincaid, vice president, corporate communications at SugarCRM.

The company is likely to make additional investments in its go-to-market (GTM) initiatives to increase GTM headcount and raise the ceiling for expenses. SugarCRM will also be upgrading its professional and enterprise platforms through so-called “New Sell Editions” to simplify the buying process for customers and create a path for them to grow, Kincaid adds.

To gain greater reach and scale, the company will enter into new distribution partnerships, similar to the Redington deal. A fourth lever for success will be the two components serving as the company’s new sales engine this year: partnerships with independent software vendors (ISVs), which the company believes will help spur even more growth; and SugarOutfitters, the company’s curated marketplace of more than 200 add-on solutions and third-party apps, certified to be interoperable with the SugarCRM platform that extend and add value to SugarCRM deployments.