Portal sweet on SugarCRM partnership

IBM VAR to target existing customers with SaaS CRM offering

IBM software partner Portal has inked a strategic partnership with SugarCRM to complement its core offering with Big Blue.

Under the partnership, Portal will target existing IBM customers – particularly those in the lower mid-market – looking to modernise their old CRM systems by moving to a cloud-based SaaS alternative.

SugarCRM has a global alliance with IBM, meaning its CRM platform integrates "powerfully" with IBM's software, including the collaboration, business analytics and marketing automation product families.

Portal said this makes it "especially well placed" to take Sugar products to its existing IBM customers.

"This partnership with SugarCRM is a natural and complementary addition to our core solutions around analytics, collaboration and mobile, and is fully in line with our increasing focus on customer engagement and customer experience solutions," said Portal managing director Jon Bradshaw.

The partnership is in line with Portal's desire to conquer the world of cloud and SaaS, Bradshaw added.

SugarCRM co-founder Clint Oram said: "We're confident that for companies looking to create an exceptional customer experience by integrating CRM with business intelligence, mobile and collaboration tools, this alliance offers a winning strategy and competitive edge for optimising the customer experience."