European SugarCRM customers get more options via Deutsche Telekom

SugarCRM customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland -- especially those concerned about privacy and data access issues -- look to be the prime beneficiaries of a deal for Deutsche Telekom to host the company's customer relationship management service.

The biggest advantage for prospective users is that Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems can host the CRM platform locally. The telco made a point of highlighting that T-Systems offers the CRM services from "a highly secure private cloud complying with Germany's stringent privacy regulations".

SugarCRM is available from T-systems worldwide, but the initial push will focus on the three German-speaking countries in Europe.

Under the agreement, T-Systems will resell Sugar as a hosted product on its infrastructure. It will take care of operation and consulting for the joint service. The company will also have the option of offering customers the on-premise version of Sugar.

The deal is an important one for SugarCRM because it provides a stronger entry to Europe's biggest market. Deutsche Telekom signed a deal with competitor Salesforce back in March, so the fact that it also wanted to have Sugar in its cloud portfolio is a sign of strength for the upstart.

The continued revelations about U.S. government snooping have been a hot topic for European CIOs this year. Right or wrong, European cloud and security vendors see it as a golden opportunity to differentiate their products from competing U.S. offerings.

T-Systems didn't announce any pricing for its SugarCRM offerings.

There are three generally available versions of Sugar to choose between: Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate.

A minimum annual subscription for the Professional version starts at US$4,200 with 10 user licenses (which equals $35 per user and month). It includes features such sales automation and forecasting; lead management; and call center automation.

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