SugarCRM, leading open source CRM provider, today announced the availability of Cloud Connectors. These connectors can be used to tap into third party web services and provide relevant information inside the CRM. For example, they could tap into LinkedIn and offer contextual information about a client.
This is a smart strategy on the part of SugarCRM. They will extend it to other web services in the future. This opens up new vistas and will make collaboration much easier. It is important for CRM applications to have integration with social networking applications as pointed out by an industry analyst
As Matt Asay points out, this is a good first step and, if the trend continues, it will also lead to further integration with other SaaS providers and competing CRM applications. This will ensure data portability, which is key to success of any on demand application.
This integration will be part of the upcoming 5.2 version release and it will be available worldwide later this month.
