The main two editions of SugarCRM we see most of our clients investing with are:

  • SugarCRM Professional, and
  • SugarCRM Enterprise

A key differentiator between these 2 versions is their Workflow capabilities.

A bit of background

SugarCRM has had workflow/process automation for many years. This module is now referred to as Standard Workflow.

When SugarCRM did the big re-development of version 7 a couple of years ago, they introduced the new Advanced Workflow engine. This was an exciting product development as it brought capability not previously possible with the basic workflow engine, and it also added a visual workflow designer, which makes processes easy to understand and very fast to develop and modify.

Example of Advanced Workflow as seen in the visual designer

Example of Advanced Workflow as seen in the visual designer

The Differences between editions

  • SugarCRM Professional only includes the Standard Workflow engine.
  • SugarCRM Enterprise includes both Standard and Advanced Workflow engines.

The Future for Professional edition and Standard Workflow

At the moment there are some capabilities of Standard workflow that haven’t been added to Advanced Workflow, so until that time Standard workflow will be available in all SugarCRM editions.

However, Sugar have said that they plan to retire Standard workflow and that will mean that there will be no workflow capability in the Professional edition. There is no fixed date for this to occur, but we expect that it will happen when the all the functionality of the Basic Workflow engine can be managed in the Advanced Workflow module.

What should you do?

If you are looking to invest in CRM, we’d recommend you lean towards going with the Enterprise edition. If you are on a budget, or you don’t need workflow, then start with Professional, try some of the Standard Workflow functions to see how it improves your business processes, and then uplift to Enterprise when or if required.

If you are a SugarCRM Pro user now, then be careful not to invest too heavily in building basic workflows. It’s ok to have a few, but if you really want to get into business process automation, then uplifting to Enterprise is recommended.

For further information about SugarCRM editions, including pricing. Click Here