BrainSell Technologies Heads Up SugarCRM Partner Advisory Board

May 21, 2012 - PRLog -- While getting global recognition is nice, being a key contributor to SugarCRM's future sales process is better. Fortunately for Jim Ward, President and owner of BrainSell Technologies (http://www.brainsell.net), he was able to achieve both. Ward was named President of SugarCRM's Partner Advisory Board (PAB) at SugarCon 2012, placing him at the forefront of communications between SugarCRM and their 400 VAR partners going forward.

Adding a new advisory board comes as SugarCRM is experiencing significant growth and accelerating momentum in its channel-focused business model, with 39 new partners signing on in the first quarter of 2012. The SugarCRM Open+ Partner Program has more than 400 partners worldwide, and between 2010 and 2011, partner-source deals tripled. SugarCRM saw its partners achieve great success in selling and providing support for SugarCRM solutions in 2011: 15 partners experienced 300%+ subscription revenue growth, 30 partners experienced 200%+ subscription revenue growth, and 70 partners experienced 75%+ subscription revenue growth.

The strong performance of SugarCRM partners have contributed to the company’s overall success: In Q1 2012, SugarCRM’s billings growth increased by 24 percent over the previous quarter and climbed by 118 percent globally over the same quarter in 2011. The company also added nearly 700 new customers in Q1.

Creating a PAB was a logical step as a large portion of their sales are derived from their 400+ VAR partners. Creating a unified voice for these partners made too much sense for SugarCRM. Making Jim Ward a mouthpiece for SugarCRM's new 12-member PAB is quite an honor – one that comes with much added responsibility.

"I’m proud to be part of SugarCRM’s first ever Partner Advisory Board," said Ward. "For me, it shows SugarCRM’s commitment to building its channel and I get the chance to be part of a company that’s on the tipping point. How exciting is that?"

Being named as the President of SugarCRM's PAB wasn't the only honor Ward was presented with. He also saw his company, BrainSell Technologies, named SugarCRM's 2011 MVP of the northeast territory.

"We vet vendors very carefully, and as a result we become evangelistic about the vendor, their solution, their people and how we can use their solution to help clients with a business outcome," Ward said. "Sugar offers our clients choice, and we have watched several of our clients grow their businesses with SugarCRM. We are looking forward to continue to grow our business with SugarCRM as well.”

“BrainSell has a deep understanding of the CRM space, and we’ve seen them be very successful at helping clients get the most out of their SugarCRM implementations,” said Jeff Campbell, vice president of worldwide sales and customer advocacy for SugarCRM. “At SugarCRM, it is very important to us that we do everything we can to help our channel be as successful as possible, and we are looking forward to having Jim Ward lead our Partner Advisory Board to continue driving the strong momentum.”