About Nortel

Nortel Networks Corp., which was previously known as Northern Telecom Limited or Northern Electric, was a telecommunications and data networking manufacturer founded in Montreal, Quebec in 1895. Nortel, at its most successful, accounted for over a third of the total value of all companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). The company employed more than 94,500 people around the world at that time and was headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario. Nortel filed bankruptcy in 2009, in the largest bankruptcy case in Canadian history, announcing it would sell of off assets and end its operations. This left shareholders, pensioners, and former employees with huge losses. During the period since the bankruptcy, the company’s executives continued to draw bonuses, angering creditors in Canada, the UK, and the US and leading to a protracted legal battle over the remnants of the business assets. In October, 2016, a settlement was reached to distribute $7.3 billion in assets to claimants, who expected to receive about 57 cents on the dollar for their claims.

Nortel was a leader in the telecommunications world, from the early years when it built a portable communicator for military field service during World War I, and creating a dial-up PBX system, to developing communications/satellite systems during the 1960’s, which was used by Hughes Aircraft Company, and launching the “Princess” phone with the handset dial that was the state-of-the-art in most 1970’s homes. The company was at the forefront of the fiber-optic technology switch that is currently under way due to its cost-effectiveness and reliability. The company also was the one that developed a billing system that allowed speech recognition technology to automate collect calls, and those billed to a third party or calling card. Nortel played a large role in moving the communications world forward into the networked world we have today.

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.