Microsoft Corp. and SugarCRM Inc. announced their intent to enhance interoperability between their respective Microsoft Windows Server and SugarCRM products at the Open Source Business Conference. SugarCRM also announced that it would be releasing a new Sugar Suite distribution under the Microsoft Community License with the Sugar Suite 4.5 version. This license is part of the Microsoft Shared Source Initiative, a program through which Microsoft shares source code with customers, partners and governments worldwide.

"With nearly 35 percent of SugarCRM's customer base currently running on Microsoft Windows Server, this intent to collaborate exemplifies the breadth of partners and developers finding economic success on the Microsoft Windows Server platform," said Bill Hilf, director of Technical Platform Strategy at Microsoft. "SugarCRM is a leading commercial open source vendor. We are pleased to be working with it on this joint collaboration effort designed to provide customers using SugarCRM on Microsoft Windows Server with the best possible experience within their environment."

Although the two companies will continue to compete in certain areas, they intend to work together to improve interoperability and provide increased benefit to their joint customers. Initially, the key areas for technical collaboration and architectural guidance are expected to focus on improved SugarCRM support for Internet Information Services (IIS) as well as optimization for Active Directory and Microsoft SQL Server, including SQL Express, SQL Server Workgroup and SQL Server Enterprise. In addition, SugarCRM plans to use the Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset to build its forthcoming product installation as a Microsoft Software Installer (MSI) package for Windows Server 2003.

"We are excited about our collaboration with Microsoft, as it will allow our customers to capitalize on their existing Windows infrastructure by helping to speed deployment times and lowering overall costs," said John Roberts (pictured), chairman and chief executive officer of SugarCRM. "In addition to this technical collaboration, the simplified language contained within the Microsoft Community License also provides a straightforward licensing option that meets the needs of our mutual customers."