In this review, you will learn how and why the SugarCRM Web Services Platform is a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective method of integrating to your SugarCRM application, regardless of the selection of an On-Demand or On-Premise infrastructure.

The flexibility of SugarCRM’s Web Services allows you to choose the integration programming models, languages, and operating systems that you are already using or that are best suited for your project. With SugarWS, you can bring your existing skills and knowledge to the platform; you don’t have to learn lots of new skills.

SugarCRM dramatically reduces the effort to integrate with either on-premises applications including Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, or other third-party solutions and external cloud services such as Amazon Web Services, Facebook, Google AppEngine, and Twitter. A large percentage of the traffic in SugarCRM’s On-Demand infrastructure is system-to-system integration, showing that it is a trusted and successful enterprise API that is used globally by SugarCRM clients worldwide.

SugarCRM Web Services

SugarWS provides a number of paths to integration success—all based on our industry-leading Web services API. Integration with SugarWS means faster, simpler, and less-risky integration that doesn’t break during upgrades and delivers a new level of access and agility to your existing IT investments. SugarWS is designed to work with all major integration middleware solutions, and for building custom integrations plus maximum flexibility and choice, the SugarWS platform supports all major development environments and tools, including .NET, Java, PHP, Ruby on Rails, and many more.

Besides a robust SOAP interface with a revamped list of available calls, SugarWS introduced major updates to the framework in 2009 such as Versioning and Extensibility, and the addition of a new REST interface.

Prior to 2009, the SugarCRM web services API had a wide variety of calls allowing you to get at almost any piece of data in the system. One downside of the diversity of calls, was that accomplishing certain tasks via the API could be burdensome in that while flexible, an integration might require multiple calls to complete a task (traversing and retrieving the details of related items is one such example). In 2009 SugarCRM rewrote all of the API calls. Based on the improvements to the framework, SugarCRM was able to reduce the number of calls down to 20 by allowing for the passing of extra parameters in to certain calls and eliminate the number of round trips to the server.

Call Description
login() Logs the user into the Sugar application and create a session
logout() Logs out the user and ends the current session
seamless_login() Used for Sugar Offline Client or to accomplish single sign on
get_user_id() Returns the user_id of the user who is logged into the current session
get_entry() Retrieves a single record with details based on the ID
get_entries() Retrieves multiple records based on IDs. This API is not applicable to the Reports module.

get_entry_list() Retrieves a list of records for a given module
get_relationship() Retrieves a collection of module records that are related to a target record and optionally return relationship data for the related beans.
get_note_attachment() Retrieves an attachment from a note
get_document_revision() Allows an authenticated user with the appropriate permission to download a document.
set_entry() Creates or updates a single module record
set_entries() Creates or updates a list of module records
set_relationship() Sets a single relationship between two records where they are related by module name and ID.
set_relationships() Sets multiple relationships between two records where they are related by module name and ID
set_note_attachment() Adds or replaces an attachment to a note
set_document_revision() Sets a new revision to the document
search_by_module() Returns the ID, module_name, and fields for the specified modules as specified in the search string.
get_server_info() Obtains server information such as version and GMT time
get_module_fields() Retrieves the vardef information on fields of the specified module

SOAP is probably the most used web services protocol. It provides a way of exchanging structured information of application functionality. A SOAP interface can be defined by its WSDL (Web Service Description Language) file. To access the WSDL for Sugar Web Services API you can read it by going to this URL in your browser: http://sugar_root_url/service/v2/soap.php?wsdl. The WSDL file will give complete explanation of all the methods with input/output data type.

Sugar Web Services also supports a robust REST interface. This adds a lightweight integration to gain access to data in a system. REST is preferable for higher transactional web integrations, as well as browser client side implementations where all rendering happens in the browser. To connect to the REST interface in the new web services framework you will connect to the following URL: http://your_sugar_url/service/v2/rest.php.

Widely Available Web Service “Stubs” from SugarExchange – notable examples

The following integration sets are readily available from SugarExchange. These allow for communication to/from SugarCRM, and make use of the SugarWS for integration purposes. This is NOT an exhaustive list:

• QuickBooks Real-time Integration
• Adobe Echo Sign Integration
• Authorize.Net Integrations
• BonitaSoft Workflow Integration
• Contivio Integration for Telephony
• eXo Plug-in for SugarCRM
• IBM Websphere CastIron
  • Salesforce.com
  • Oracle Applications
  • SAP
  • Oracle CRM
  • Amazon
  • Chatter
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Eloqua
  • PROS
  • SignalDemand
  • Zuora
  • Google Apps
  • NetSuite
  • RightNow
  • Teleo
  • SPS Commerce
• iZeno Integration
• JigSaw Integration
• ProcessMaker API
• Sage MAS90 Integration
• Talend Integration
• Velaro Chat Integration

Example Scenarios of Web Service Use

Summary

Web services create compatibility and interoperability among various packaged and customized Web applications – in a standardized and vendor-neutral manner. Web services are most economical – and beneficial – when used in an enterprise-level business scenario that combines the functionality of multiple applications into easy-to-use enterprise services. Such a business scenario requires a service-oriented architectural approach.

For SugarCRM, Web services play an important role in the concept of enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA). Web services ensure interoperability between platforms, and all communication within enterprise SOA is based on Web services. Enterprise services expose the functionality and data of applications so that they can be accessed by any service user. Just as Web services take the complexity out of platform connectivity, enterprise services take the complexity out of application integration

http://www.jivesoftware.com/files/pdf/whitepaper/WP-How-Social-Business-is-Killing-CRM.pdf

I’m going to take a deeper dive on Jive…stay tuned.

An interesting read full of fud but provides a compelling argument where I wouldn’t be surprised to find the likes of Yammer and Jive as direct competitors in standard CRM deals: http://www.jivesoftware.com/files/pdf/whitepaper/WP-How-Social-Business-is-Killing-CRM.pdf

For those whose view of eCommerce is limited to placing products on Ebay or Yahoo Carts, Magento Enterprise is going to come as a revolutionary solution that can enhance their entire revenue model without breaking the bank. For those who view eCommerce as an Enterprise class sales channel for B2C or B2B solutions, Magento Enterprise is going to come as a staunchly robust, pleasantly flexible and powerful platform, that dispels the notion that enterprise eCommerce software must cost six figures.

Built as an open source platform, Magento Enterprise Edition’s software architecture leverages a well designed enterprise-class PHP framework and is designed to run on the MySQL database platform. Magento comes in three editions:

1. Community Edition
2. Professional Edition
3. Enterprise Edition

Each of these three versions has varying levels of functionality; with the Community edition being more than satisfactory for a basic store front, and the Enterprise edition containing all the security and commerce functions that a serious business needs.    CE is free, and each subsequent version has an annual subscription rate, with Enterprise being the higher price solution (and with Magento’s Enterprise surprising low cost, “higher” is definitely a relative term).

While many will be attracted to Magento because of the free community edition, most businesses that see eCommerce and the Internet as a core sales channel will see the platform of choice is the Enterprise edition.  This product review will focus on the Enterprise edition and provide some version comparisons which demonstrate the value add of this licensed edition.

About the product – Key features

Most customers will notice that Magento has a decisive B2C flavor. Key features an online retailer would desire are natively supplied out of the box such as:

1. Loyalty reward program
2. Gift Certificate / cards
3. Store Credit management
4. Content Management System (CMS) to add / edit static content
5. Customer groups / attributes that allow you to create customer tiers with a pricing rules engine to implement dynamic pricing levels based on membership or customer classification
6. PCI certification for credit card processing
7. Ability to create multiple store fronts from one instance
8. Ability to create virtual catalogs so that store fronts can leverage subsets of a base root catalog and override pricing and other product attribute data
9. With version 1.11, RMA and other customer support / warehouse tools are improved or added as well

Customers looking to implement complex B2B solutions with customer specific (contract) pricing models will find that the setup and implementation timeline will take about 25% to 35% longer depending on the number of price lists or virtual catalogs needed for support.

B2B customers who wish to add price quote request / management workflows, purchase order and credit line controls, as well as bonded inventory tracking should expect to spend time applying customized code to meet these models. *Note, Magento’s architecture allows these customizations to be applied predictably and in an upgrade safe manner, but customization is required for these elements.

About the User Interface

One of the greatest benefits of Magento, which seems to be the least well publicized element, is how dynamically the user interface and skin or theme can be changed.  For those implementing their first eCommerce site or releasing their first Magento eCommerce site, we highly encourage you to view the Extensions list on www.magentocommerce.com, particularly the design and theme section. There are more than 1800 pre-built themes to use as a UI starting point, more than half of which can be downloaded for free.

This allows a customer to find a UI design that largely matches their needs and within hours have a working, customized interface applied so you can focus on the core of your implementation – products, pricing, and order capture.

Most customers wish to change their UI experience within 12 months regardless of whether they use a pre-built theme or a custom built one, thus, leveraging a low cost and personalized starting template makes the most sense from an ROI perspective.

About Performance

Doing a Google search on Magento performance will result a number of posting about slow page loads and poor performance. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Most of these refer to Magento Community Edition installations. Community Edition is not optimized, not supported, and is for the smallest of eCommerce sites. If you are planning on running a site that gets more than 25 orders per day or 200 visitors a day, performance alone should get you to consider Professional or Enterprise edition.
2. Magento Enterprise is highly optimized and leverages high levels of page and index caching.
3. Magento Enterprise benefits for dedicated, high levels of memory to allow the greatest levels of caching. One of the biggest mistakes customers make early on is to skimp on memory on their server or cloud host.  For enterprise customers, regardless of transaction load, a minimum of 8 GB of RAM should be used to allow the most effective use of database and web page caching possible. True high performance / high transaction load sites should consider implementing a dedicated caching server using Memcache.
4. For customers who plan to support more than 500 transactions / 8000 visitors a day, you should consider a dedicated database server and separate web server / servers. The CPU and memory utilization of these two areas can begin to compete at higher visitor loads and simply increasing resources on a single box can offer diminishing returns.

What you should expect when implementing Magento Enterprise

For B2C implementations largely using out of the box functionality, 3 to 4 calendar weeks for a start to finish project is reasonable (assumes less than 2500 SKU’s and less than 2500 customer profile records to migrate, excluding order history).  Integration requests, custom theme development, or B2B pricing / order control logic will add time to this base.

The areas that will have the greatest impact to you in terms of time commitment will fall into the following categories:

1. Assembling data – getting your product, category and attribute data will take you more of YOUR time than you expect. Start early… make this a critical focus item.
2. Design revisions – This is one area people get carried away and drive time and cost while adding diminishing value is on the UI design. If you have a solid, clean, modern and professional interface, there is a point where each round of change does nothing but increase cost of implementation. A good word of advice is to start simple, measure feedback in the first month, and then drive additional UI revisions based on actual results not ‘best guess hunches’.
3. Be aware of the impact of social media. A reputable firm can leverage Magento Enterprise to help you create a simple and consistent method to allow your customers to publicize your offerings on Facebook and Twitter. While it can at times be difficult to measure the financial impact of these placements, the value of Brand Equity is important and current research shows a growing bias in Gen Y and New Millennial customers to trust Social Media services.
4. If you are working with a service provider, make sure you have a post release support model in place BEFORE you go live.  If you’re site is successful, you will want to do more quickly. Discussing how you will do this, and how you will work with your partner to take all the possible ‘wants’ and distill that down to a group of ‘needs’ is important. The rush of activity that can come post release can cause a person to lose site of the prioritization discipline they so effectively followed leading up to the launch.
5. Understand that when implementing Magento Enterprise; you aren’t ‘done’ or ‘stuck with what you have’. Magento releases functional updates two to three times per year. For the engaged online merchant, each release included new functionality and features you can leverage to expand your offering and drive customer retention.  Put a plan in place to upgrade one to two times per year – software upgrade files are including in your subscription, so make sure you and your provider have a plan / roadmap to make use of what is provided to you over time.
6. Be aware of additional services and extensions that add value. One of the value that Magento’s open source architecture provides is that many value add services have pre-built services you can leverage to further expand your offering.  Companies like ListTrack offer SaaS marketing solutions designed to reduce shopping cart abandonment and drive sales volume. Satori is a great service for address data verification that can reduce returned shipments and improve the quality of follow up marketing communications. These are just a small sample of how a strong platform encourages others to add additional value with minimal additional investment. This ecosystem is only going to grow over time.

About Hosting and Infrastructure

Unless you are firm that has an established, well manned data center, you should the use of a cloud hosting provider. For a fixed monthly cost, all the IT operational issues of patching, backups, network / switch management can be addressed. A quality cloud hosting provider can also provider a very simple, predictable upgrade path for hardware improvements over time as your load and demand grows.

While there are several excellent options in this space, we strongly recommend customers consider Peer1 Hosting.  Peer1 has developed the overall size and scale that ensures it’s processes are repeatable and that the company is well beyond ‘a going certain state’, but they have not reached the level of bureaucratic organization that results in simple change requests requiring 5 days advance notice. SLA’s are defined, they are SAS 70 certified, own their entire infrastructure and Tier 1 support is better than most other organizations.  Finally, their pricing is competitive with similar offerings while offering far superior services.

About Magento – the company and the roadmap

Magento is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Ebay.  This has several significant implications.

Capital investment for the platform is more secure than ever. Ebay has publicly demonstrated how Magento Enterprise Edition is a cornerstone element of its x.commerce initiative. Any fear or doubt about the long term viability of the platform and company should now be put to rest.

In addition, Ebay and Magento have demonstrated a repeatable process and ability to incorporate value add services.

One of the key roadmap elements customers should be aware of is Ebay’s intention to leverage Magento Enterprise as a means for a merchant to sell not only direct, but through Ebay and Amazon.com through one management console instance.

With the potential for a local enterprise eCommerce presences to position and manage store fronts on Ebay and Amazon.com natively from one site – customers can dramatically add value to their investments. Ebay has already shown an ability to deliver on these types of roadmap items and those considering Magento should evaluate how the ability to drive not only direct traffic, but also take advantage of two of the largest online market places in the world would impact their growth potentials.

Short term or long term…on the basis of cost…on the basis of features…on the basis of architecture…Magento Enterprise is a winner.

Lauren Carlson of Software Advice, makes a compelling case to this effect in her article “Salesforce Alternatives | 5 Cloud CRM Systems to Consider“.

Carlson writes a great article that presents SugarCRM, Oracle CRM On-Demand, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics and Sage Saleslogix, as viable, and in some cases, superior options to Salesforce.

I found her thoughts on SugarCRM to be very interesting: a focus not only on price, but on flexibility: “SugarCRM allows for a more personalized customer experience,” cites Carlson, “There are multiple dashboards that can be customized based on your role or what metrics you need to track.”

Of course the value equation is also clear in her rearh conclusions,”SugarCRM is competitive in terms of features for basic sales, service and marketing activities, but where it really stands out is on price. The most basic offering is free to download. There are also the Professional CRM and Enterprise CRM editions that start at $30 and $50 per user, per year, respectively. This makes SugarCRM one of the most cost-effective CRM options available.”

Read Lauren’s full article here: “Salesforce Alternatives | 5 Cloud CRM Systems to Consider”.

As the owner of a SugarCRM VAR, I’ve spent a lot of time over the past years comparing, selling and writing about SugarCRM relative to Salesforce in particular…so I believe SugarCRM has a distinct advantage: in a nutshell it often does come down to cost/functional parity….where SugarCRM beats just about everyone, but perhaps the two areas of real differentiation for Sugar are, one….the fact that SugarCRM provides you not only with a SAAS offering, but also an option to install on-Premise, at no additional cost….and two, the open source characteristics of SugarCRM which essentially eliminate any and all barriers to integration, customization, or data extraction…which for most firms, is critical.  In variably, CRM is most effective (from an adoption perspective) when its integrated with other social and operational systems, and is most valuable (from an intelligence perspective) when you can freely assess and analyze the facts contained in them, to demystify what has been traditionally understood to be “tribal knowledge”.

Achieving these results requires an open and un-impeded ability to integrate and extract data to and from your CRM, and that’s where Sugar wins.

What has helped Sugar though as of late, has been the improvement to the User Interface, the expansion of Security features, and the alignment to technology partners like Pardot, GoodData, InsideView and Contivio, which allows SugarCRM to finally compete in the mid to large enterprise markets.