Wordpress Plugin - Sept 2012 - SugarCRM AotM

SugarCRM web-to-lead Wordpress Plugin is the September 2012 SugarCRM App of the Month. SugarCRM web-to-lead is a WordPress plugin generating a custom contact form on your WordPress website or blog that sends the leads to your SugarCRM. Visit the SugarForge project.

Name, title and brief bio?

Alex Sherbakov is the founder and CEO of Kenmore Design. Since 2007 Alex worked closely with a group of designers and developers to build an internationally recognized web design firm. In 2010 Alex has recognized the impotence of the FX industry and found a lot of room for improvement of the way brokerages market their services. Alex has found multiple ways for any Forex brokerage to cut their costs as well as find new means for revenue generation.

When you designed and built this app, what problems were you looking to solve for SugarCRM users?

Our goal has been to simplify the use of Web-To-Lead functionality on the SugarCRM CE. SugarCRM and Wordpress are a very common combo since startups are going mainstream and Open Source is always the first resource to look at.

What inspired you to build this app?

Most of our clients use SugarCRM to manage their leads, so we were having to replicate the functionality for every site we built. This plug-in allowed us to streamline the process of deployment for everyone who uses Wordpress for their CMS. We open-sourced it so businesses don't need to hire a company that specializes in development for Sugar. They can simply find their solution online.

What attracted you to being a part of the Sugar ecosystem?

We are a high-end web design company whose clients come to us because they don't want something out of the box. These are big companies; we can't just send lead information via email. SugarCRM is our CRM of choice to offer along with our sites. The main advantage of Sugar, of course, is that it's open-source.

What other apps have you been involved with in the Sugar ecosystem?

We have built numerous financial websites and web applications for Forex brokers that allow traders to manage their trading accounts - making deposits, withdrawals, updating account information, etc. All the information from our Forex Trader's Room gets submitted to SugarCRM, allowing the broker to assign tasks and review how much revenue each sales agent generates.

What has been the most rewarding part of being a part of the Sugar ecosystem?

Definitely the exposure one gets and the ease of finding answers. Web and phone support are no rivals for open-source product forums.

How has Sugar's open ecosystem and vast community helped you build this app?

Sugar forums have been really helpful. While developing the app, we found ourselves needing answers to questions that hadn't been asked before. For questions like those, the forums are priceless.

What do you want to build next for Sugar?

For now, we're going to keep on improving what we've got, and work on developing deeper relationships between Sugar and our Forex Trader's Room.