SugarCRM Awarded 2010 Everything Channel Partner Program Guide and Five-Star Partner Rating

Open + Partner Program Recognized as Exceptional by Leading Channel Authority

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SugarCRM, the world’s leading provider of open source customer relationship management (CRM) software, today announced it has been recognized by Everything Channel as one of North America’s top information technology (IT) vendors for its Open + partner program. Additionally, Open + was recognized with a five-star rating representative of an exceptional program.

“We are pleased to deliver to the Channel an exclusive list of the leading vendor channel programs with details about key technologies, program opportunities, and information on the hottest new program offerings”

SugarCRM’s partner program was awarded a Five-Star recognition in Emerging company category in Everything Channel’s 16^th annual 2010 Partner Program Guide (PPG), acknowledging its commitment and strength of its programs for reseller partners, which include IT integrators, technology solution providers and consultants.

Open + is a market development program that provides channel partners with SugarCRM expertise and resources for business planning, business development activities, event execution, market positioning and sales delivery. With this distinction comes greater access and support for SugarCRM’s Open Cloud platform and enabling technology to help build, manage and maintain next-generation cloud solutions for customers. SugarCRM additionally offers a referral program that rewards partners for each qualified lead referred to SugarCRM. These attributes result in streamlined lead generation, distribution of leads, and deal registration; as well as centralized marketing collateral partners can leverage as they go to market with Sugar-powered solutions.

SugarCRM showcased the Open + program on the heels of major channel recognition in the last few quarters. The company was recently named one of CRN Magazine’s Top 100 Cloud Computing Companies, and a winner in the category of Top 20 Cloud Productivity Applications. Jeff Campbell, vice president of worldwide sales at SugarCRM, was also named a 2010 Channel Chief by CRN for his leadership in building one of the most channel-friendly CRM applications companies in the market.

Research for the 2010 Everything Channel Partner Program Guide and the Five-Star Partner Program rating was conducted by Everything Channel’s research department. Everything Channel analyzed 130 vendor programs rating vendors’ responses to in-depth questions about their partner programs in the five elements of sales support, partner profitability, partner ecosystem development/management, partner communication/marketing, and demand generation. To ensure fair comparisons, companies were placed in one of four categories based on company size (Enterprise, Midsize, Small and Emerging). Questions from each section were scored individually and weighted appropriately. The 5-Star Partner Program rating recognizes the elite subset of Partner Program Guide vendors who give solution providers the best partnering elements in their channel programs. The 5-Star rating is bestowed on programs whose overall rating is among the elite based on company size.

“We are pleased to deliver to the Channel an exclusive list of the leading vendor channel programs with details about key technologies, program opportunities, and information on the hottest new program offerings,” said Kelley Damore, VP, Editorial Director, Everything Channel. “The quality of a technology vendor’s partner program determines how profitable its partners will be. For their commitment to their business partners and their efforts to build quality programs, we congratulate those recognized as this year’s Five-Star Partner Program winners for helping to drive greater revenue in the channel.”

“This award acknowledges SugarCRM’s progress in becoming the most channel-focused business application provider on the market,” said Jeff Campbell, vice president of worldwide sales at SugarCRM. “Our goal remains to build the most flexible, easy to use CRM product that can be delivered by our partners to customers, around the world.”

The PPG list and those companies recognized as five-star will appear in the March 29 issue of CRN magazine and online at www.Channelweb.com.

About SugarCRM

SugarCRM is the world's leading provider of open source customer relationship management (CRM) software. Over 6,000 customers and more than half a million users rely on SugarCRM to execute marketing programs, grow sales, retain customers and create custom business applications. Leading publications such as CRM Magazine, InfoWorld and eWeek praise SugarCRM for its ease-of-use, flexibility and open design. SugarCRM runs on the leading cloud computing platforms, including Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Sugar On-Demand and Private Clouds, offering customers unparalleled choice and control of their data and deployments.

About Everything Channel (www.everythingchannel.com, www.channelweb.com)

Everything Channel, headquartered in Framingham, MA, is a technology marketing and sales solutions company. Through its “Complete Technology Channel Solution,” Everything Channel offers the right business tools to accelerate technology sales. From branding and recruiting to marketing and sales, Everything Channel offers technology marketers the unmatched breadth and depth of global brands and market intelligence combined with unparalleled audience loyalty and credibility serving all technology sales channels through an extensive database. Everything Channel provides innovative field sales and marketing solutions to the sellers of technology to achieve measurable and significant results.

About United Business Media Limited

UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetisation of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities -- from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists -- with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to www.ubm.com.