SugarCRM expands global partner programme

More hoops to jump through for SugarCRM partners worldwide

SugarCRM has beefed up its Open+ partner programme with the addition of business planning assistance, certification and a partner advisory board.

Jeff Campbell, vice president of worldwide sales and customer advocacy at SugarCRM, said channel sales were doing well, with 39 new partners signing up in Q1 of 2012, and the vendor wants to capitalise on that.

"The changes recognise the value our partners bring," Campbell asserted. "We are also providing greater access for partners to executives at the highest levels."

Partners that meet their business planning goals will receive additional incentives, the open-source-derived CRM software vendor promised.

The new 12-member partner advisory board will aim to provide the vendor with more guidance and feedback from its partners, it added. The first advisory board meeting will be at SugarCon, its annual customer, user and partner conference.

The formalised certification programme will include what SugarCRM calls "a role-based training curriculum". The aim, the vendor said, is to ensure that partner employees are getting the training they and their customers need. Classes and courses will be included for sales executives, pre-sales engineers, support consultants, service consultants and developers.

All channel partners will now be required to certify at least one person for each of the sales executive, pre-sales engineer and service consultant roles.

So far Open+ has about 400 partners worldwide, and SugarCRM connects this with improved partner sales, it said.

"In 2011, 15 partners experienced 300 per cent subscription revenue growth, 30 partners experienced 200 per cent subscription revenue growth, and 70 partners experienced 75 per cent subscription revenue growth," the vendor said in a statement.

"In Q1 2012, SugarCRM's billings growth increased by 24 per cent over the previous quarter and climbed by 118 per cent globally over the same quarter in 2011. The company also added nearly 700 new customers in Q1."