SugarCRM previews next release, new cloud connectors

SugarCRM plans to incorporate an improved web services framework, new themes framework, mobile customization features and teams features in its next open source CRM release, due this spring.

The web services capabilities in the next release, for example, offer streamlined performance of web service calls and a new Representative State Transfer (RST) interface that simplifies development of services based on Sugar data, the company said. In addition, third party developers will find it easier to create integrations to their CRM applications.

The company previewed its CRM features and cloud services at its annual SugarCon conference, which kicked off on Feb 2.

The next release, due to go into beta testing next month, also features a new themes framework, dynamic teaming capabilities and a mobile studio editor, the company said.

The themes framework allows developers to create themes without writing code and customize themes for corporate customers. Themes are the user interface layers that offer pre built and custom themes with different styles and colors, the company said.

The “dynamic teams” capability allows users to add several individuals or complete teams to a specific CRM record to enhance the collaboration process on projects.

The Mobile Studio Editor delivers pre-built layouts and views and gives developers and users better customization capabilities to optimize SugarCRM for mobile devices, the company also said.

At its annual conference on Monday, SugarCRM also announced the availability of new cloud connectors for Zoominfo and CrunchBase to bolster its recently introduced its Cloud Connector framework. Those connectors will allow users to integrate Zoominfo and Crunchbase data in SugarCRM applications.

The Cloud Connector framework, which was released in December, allows developers to create new connectors and store them on the SugarForge repository and SugarExchange marketplace.