About Cisco PBX

Having pioneered the commercialization of Local Area Network (LAN) technology, Leonard Bosack and his then-wife Sandy Lerner started Cisco Systems Inc. in 1984. The two Stanford University computer scientists named their company after the city of San Francisco. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the global tech conglomerate is in the thick of technological innovation in Silicon Valley. The company started off on the wrong foot, with allegations that it had violated Stanford’s copyright to the popular “blue box” router to build its own router. However, it is now recognized as the largest network technology company in the world. Cisco’s stock is part of several global indices including the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 Index, the Russell 1000 Index, NASDAQ 100 Index.

Over the years, Cisco has acquired several companies to expand its hold over the networking technology market. Some of its most notable acquisitions include OpenDNS, WhipTail, and Sourcefire for which Cisco shelled out $2.7 billion. This year, the company bought AppDynamics in a $3.7 billion deal.

Cisco’s collaboration solutions include IP phones and desktop endpoints. Its series of IP phones provide superior quality voice and video calling that works with various Cisco dialer apps, and the IP8800 series comes with Cisco Spark Phone OS which is configured for both cloud and on-premises environment and can also be easily connected to a desktop. Cisco integration options are also widely used in different industries–integrating the phone system with business management and customer management software. The Cisco Telepresence series is optimized for teleconferencing needs. The Cisco Spark Board enables presenters to save content automatically; its continuous workflow allows team members to resume discussions after a break.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager is compatible with all devices, various integrations including Cisco dialer providers, and its Express variant is a feature-rich call processing solution for medium-sized businesses. Cisco Unified Communications Manager runs on Cisco Integrated Services Routers. Cisco business edition 7000 is customized for the needs of large companies while Cisco Business Edition 6000 is an affordable solution for small and medium businesses. Cisco’s Spark Hybrid Services is meant for companies that want to enhance mobility without completely migrating to the cloud. Cisco integrations are also available to maximize the benefits of using the cloud-based PBX.

To expand its functionality, Cisco works with different applications and plug-ins. As CiscoPBX is used mostly in volume-dialing situations, a Cisco CTI that integrates the phone system with CRMs is also widely utilized. Cisco CTI solutions unlock the full potential of cloud computing as it pertains to sales, support, and marketing uses.

Cisco has won several global awards for its products and services. At the Network Middle East Innovation Awards, 2015 Cisco was recognized as the Unified Communications Vendor of the Year. Cisco is ranked No. 7 in Multinational Workplaces Category in the Latin American region by the Great Place to Work Institute. In 2015, Cisco’s products won Best of Interop Awards in three categories in addition to the two Global Excellence Awards conferred on Cisco by Info Securities Product Guide.

About SugarCRM

SugarCRM markets itself as a solution for complicated CRM platforms. It boasts a simple user interface, an industry-leading customer experience, and an intuitive customization platform.

Based in Cupertino, California, SugarCRM was founded in 2004 by Clint Oram, John Roberts, and Jacob Taylor. The startup received $2 million funding from American businessman and venture capitalist Josh Stein within the same year, allowing it to expand quickly. SugarCRM also received $86 million of venture capital from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Walden International, New Enterprise Associates, and Goldman Sachs.

Now recognized as a CRM visionary and innovator, SugarCRM is used by more than two million users in over 120 countries and 26 languages. The private company operates from several global offices in New York City, Raleigh, London, Munich, Minsk, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Sydney, and Hong Kong.

SugarCRM’s flagship product is Sugar, a web application that focuses on sales force automation, marketing campaigns, customer support, collaboration, mobile CRM, social CRM, and reporting. It can easily integrate with any application and can be optimized for use on several devices.

Sugar’s Sales CRM platform is used for account and opportunity management. It also creates a collaborative environment to harness the power of the whole organization. Other features of Sales CRM include process automation, pipeline management, sales analytics, mobile productivity, and sales prospecting.

The Customer Service CRM aspect of Sugar delivers rich insight by automating complex business processes and driving both internal and customer collaboration. Marketing is made easy through prospect and customer targeting, campaign management, lead management, and marketing analytics. Sugar also has native mobile apps for popular phones and tablets for maximum mobile productivity. Other features include flexible deployment options, activity streams, deep integrations, a self-service portal, and multicurrency support. The platform can be accessed in 35 languages, with 80 more available in language packs. It comes in three editions, namely Sugar Professional, Sugar Enterprise, and Sugar Ultimate.

SugarCRM has won a number of awards over the years. When it was just starting out, the company was named Project of the Month by Sourceforge. It won the 2015 CRM Excellence Award and the 2015 CRM Product of the Year from Network Computing Awards. It has also been named as PCMag’s Business Choice Award for CRM within the same year.

In 2016, SugarCRM was named as Customer Product of the Year by CUSTOMER Magazine. It was also recognized as a market leader by the CRM Market Awards. SugarCRM also made it to the Forbes Cloud 100 List.