Commercial open-source CRM (customer relationship management) vendor SugarCRM said Monday it will give customers the ability to plug in feeds from third-party data sources like the business social-networking site LinkedIn.
The new “Cloud Connectors” feature is part of the vendor’s new SugarCRM 5.2 release, which will be available worldwide this month.
While users could obviously tap such third-party services separately, SugarCRM created the new integration capability because it keeps users in a CRM context, as well as makes the process more convenient and efficient, said Martin Schneider, director of product marketing.
If you’re logging into third-party sites “while you’re on the phone with someone, you’re going to be hemming and hawing and you’re not going to have it at your fingertips,” he said. “The idea is to drive adoption and keep people in one space, but also give them unfettered access to bringing content into the CRM system.”…
