SugarCRM Reviews

I have been working at SugarCRM full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great Benefits
A few members of C Suite still genuinely care about the culture and employees
Found a way to survive the recession
Friendly coworkers

Cons – Have heard IPO for multiple years
Poor planning when major reorgs happen
Very little culture left
Almost no effort made it introduce new employees to vetrans

Advice to Senior Management – I would really prefer to stop hearing about us going IPO. It has no impact on me as an employee anymore. Let me know the day before it ACTUALLY is going to happen or let it go.

Sugar used to be a place where people were promoted from within and stayed for years and now it seems we just keep hiring more and more people who aren't truly Sugas; who don't care about anything other than getting a paycheck. I'm tired of seeing hardworking good people leave/get laid off because of some poorly planned reorganization.

As a side note...I don't think Engineering always getting all the perks, food every week, outings, parties, toys...while everyone else waits for the holiday party creates a sense of equality. Let's even out that portion of the budget shall we? (I'm coming from a place of years of observation, not just recently)

All the new signage/tshirts are great but I don't really think those are our values. I think those are the values we wish we had.

On the plus side, I know there are members of C Suite who genuinely care about the company, it's employees, and the culture. What I would prefer is that those people REQUIRE their managers to be a part of the culture. You can't talk about culture and then never participate. You can't expect 12 people out of 180 to keep a culture thriving.

I have had a mostly great time as an employee at Sugar and am grateful for everything I have learned and continue to learn. I stay close to the people my gut says are the real deal and are not just here for a paycheck. I consider myself one of the lucky ones.

I do think we have great benefits as well and I do see HR making an effort to add more.

I still have hope Sugar. Now prove you are who you think you are.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at SugarCRM full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – For a long time, SugarCRM was a great place to work. There was always a lot to be done, but it was always an interesting challenge, and fun work with collaborative teams. My colleagues are intelligent and hard-working. I really love working with my team.

The benefits are nice, the hours are flexible (at least for my team, can't speak for others), and they bring in food at least once a week.

Cons – While I do love my team, there is a lot of "bad blood" between groups at the management level. When things go even a little south, fingers are pointed immediately.

I also feel that the product management team is a bit out of touch with reality. As a whole, we seem to spend a lot of time focusing on building new features and using new technology; not spending ample time improving overall product quality and scalability, where a lot of the real issues lie. Additionally, we spend a lot of time changing directions. I'm unsure if this is due to power struggles at the top, or a management team that has no sense of where they are going. Maybe a bit of both.

Advice to Senior Management – The politics have to get better for the company to move forward. Fighting between groups isn't good for anyone and is going to drive away what talent is left.

The internal systems in place are also sorely in need of repair. Another reviewer mentioned cobbler's children syndrome, which I think concisely sums up what is happening inside the company. If we are to be a top CRM vendor, we must have an exceptional CRM ourselves.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at SugarCRM full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – There are well meaning, talented people scattered throughout the company.
There's a demand for the product and it's priced competitively.
No complaints about the top level executives but the quality of talent declines rapidly starting at the VP level.
A blue chip acquisition may happen but don't hold your breath for an IPO just yet.

Cons – The bickering and finger pointing is holding the company back from making progress.
The company is known to not promote from within which leads to the loss of top performers.
Recycling sales and marketing is the hot new trend so working for them is not recommended for people who value stability.
If you want to belong to a company with culture and spirit, Sugar is not the place to be.

Advice to Senior Management – Cut it out with the cronyism. The company should have been burned enough times in this way for the lesson to have been learned. If the company wants referral hires, source them from proven employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at SugarCRM full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great potential. Some strong partnerships that want to see the company succeed.

Cons – Poor visibility into strategy or plan.
Little vision
Zero marketing vision or leadership
Poor budget management limits investment, growth, engagement
Uncompetitive pay, bonus and benefit packages
No growth opportunities
Too techie - the geeks are driving the direction of the product and company

Advice to Senior Management – Three things first: 1) CMO, 2) CMO, 3) CMO
Stop being technology driven. Too many features/functions are driven by what Engineering thinks is cool with no market validation or view
Cobbler's children syndrome - FIX internal systems
Engage more with field offices/remote employees

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at SugarCRM full-time for more than a year

Pros – lip service, lip service. managers talk the talk but cannot walk it , people will do anything to cover their asses. good poker faces

Cons – managers lack accountability, managers do not know how to manager and lead, decision made are random, not well thought out

Advice to Senior Management – if you read in between the lines we know the IBM intentions

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at SugarCRM full-time for more than a year

Pros – Some of the executive management team are the tops. They're smart and inspiring.

Cons – Politics are becoming more prevalent. The head of marketing is clearly absent any strategy which hurts the company more than most recognize. Sales is strong, but incurring turnover. Several managers are just skating by.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to grow the channel, they may be the future of the company. Also, lessen the IPO talk, as most believe it's not going to happen and is being used as a false incentive to keep people.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at SugarCRM full-time

Pros – Unique product and positioning in the market

Cons – Management, Leadership, Development, Execution of Strategy, Culture

A long time back, SugarCRM employed people who genuinely cared about working collaboratively toward the goal of the success of the company and its customers, not just for personal success at the expense of others, the company and the customers.

Things went south quickly when the wrong people came into power and the environment became very political. The wrong people were given the power to make strategic decisions around the company and the product. The product did not improve or develop quickly enough, and customer retention suffered due to a huge disconnect between company and product strategy and customer and prospect needs.

Creative people with good ideas and the ability to implement changes and establish processes were squashed and limited in growth within the company if they were not willing to brown-nose and see eye-to-eye with those in power. Talent came and left. Conformists remained. The culture changed for the worse. It became a culture of blame, defensiveness and fear when company growth was slow.

There have been a lot of big changes in the organization lately around strategy and management. Hopefully, these changes will prove to be the right ones and will lead the company to great success in the near future and onward.

Advice to Senior Management – Look back at the history of the company. Trace the sources of the successes and the failures back to specific people and events. Learn from the failures. Check those in power. Listen to and recognize those in the trenches who are truly in touch with what changes are needed. Don't waste time. Move quickly. Make the right changes to prevent the same/similar failures. Good luck, and I wish you the best!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at SugarCRM full-time for more than a year

Pros – - Passionate leaders who have high expectations, but are supportive.
- Our colleagues are extremely hard-working, excited about the product and company, like to have fun, and pitch in to help each other.
- Sugar still has a start-up feel in many ways even though it is 9 years old: fast-moving, high energy, accomplishments are seen quickly, employees are closer to the product and customers
- Work space is open and collaborative

Cons – - Internal communication needs further improvement
- Parking can be a challenge

Advice to Senior Management – - Improve the flow of direct communication to your managers and team.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at SugarCRM full-time for more than a year

Pros – Smart people (in ever-diminishing numbers); an exciting market with plenty of room for innovation.

Cons – The great pity is that the company came out of its annual conference in 2012 with the wind at its back - and immediately started coming off the tracks. Management changes starting in August, 2012, were followed by layoffs that were capricious and seemingly random, and which continued through the duration of my time there. ("Coming to work on Fridays is like playing HR Russian roulette," observed one colleague.) The newer managers (nearly all of whom had no experience in the CRM industry) showed little faith in their employees' skills, and they also showed an astounding lack of respect for employees' time, with long meetings becoming frequent. One weekly 90-minute meeting routinely featured long debates among executives about slide templates, chart formats and other minutia. It was clear that the meeting served to update managers on what was going on in their departments, since they never bothered to understand that by speaking to their employees. Internal politics became the primary focus, not the product. Wholesale turnover in sales and marketing has contributed to a severely demoralized company mood.

Some employees' efforts were actively stymied by their managers as a way to demonstrate those employees' ineffectiveness and set the stage for their dismissal. In other cases, an employee might get three contradictory instructions from three different managers. Initiative is not only unwelcome - it tends to be punished by management. Communication and long-term planning is almost non-existent in parts of the organization.

Advice to Senior Management – The top management is extremely talented. They need to stop daydreaming about an IPO or an IBM acquisition and fantasizing about turning into an enterprise-focused company overnight, and start looking hard at what's actually going on on a basic level within the company. They have people in key management roles who may be good at "managing up" but are terrible at "managing down," and the the talent that really makes the company run is being driven out or purged. You need to act fast before SugarCRM's not a company of eager, energetic, ambitious innovators like it was and instead becomes a company entirely staffed by yes-people, toadies and low performers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at SugarCRM full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great mentors, good product, culture, benefits

Cons – sometimes lacks direction, has more potential than it is. Employees get overworked often.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company