Sugar Event Management Suite vs Salesforce Lightning Activity Timeline

Sugar Event Management Suite vs Salesforce Lightning Activity TimelineAuthor: Nikolay Bulava, CEO

The comfort of work with historical data and planned actions in CRM system significantly influence common efficiency of CRM users day-to-day work and User Adoption overall.

In this short article, we compare capabilities of Salesforce Lightning Activity Timeline with Event Management Suite for SugarCRM and their features for processing history and planned actions.

Capabilities on the Level of a Particular CRM Entity

We’ll start with the level of a CRM record because its functions define the efficiency of work of each and any CRM user who needs to investigate the current state of affairs in order to prepare to communicate with a particular customer or collaborate with teammates on a specific question.

Salesforce Lightning Activity TimelineSugar
Event Management Suite
Historical Timeline
Activities review (tasks, meetings, calls, email)YesYes
Creating of custom elements of timeline (e.g. status changes; changes of amount or potential; move to new company; etc.)NoYes
Customisation of timeline event description (e.g. to show assigned manager or current task status, etc.)NoYes
Filtering of timeline by time periodYesYes
Filtering of timeline by type of eventYesYes
Filtering of timeline by user nameYesYes
Review of event details directly from timeline feedYesYes
Quick moving to the target CRM entity  from timelineYesYes
Quick moving to the related data record from timeline (e.g. account, contact, opportunity, etc.)YesYes
TimeLine collaborationNoYes
Quick reply to e-mail directly from timelineYesNo
Displaying events from external systems on timelineNoYes
Displaying events from related entities (e.g. cases events on account level)NoYes
Access to historical timeline on mobileNoYes
Upcoming Timeline
Review of planned activities (task, meeting, call)YesYes
Review of other control dates (e.g. postponed until; next step date; expected close date; etc.)NoYes
Customisation of timeline event description (e.g. to show manager or status of task, amount of opportunity or lead’s scoring etc.)NoYes
Collaboration of upcoming eventNoYes
Filtering of timeline by time periodYesYes
Filtering of timeline by type of eventYesYes
Filtering of timeline by user nameYesYes
Quick filtering of overdue eventsNoYes
Quick filtering of current eventsNoYes
Quick filtering of future eventsNoYes
Displaying events from related entities (e.g. opportunity expected close date on account level)NoYes
Quick editing of task/meeting/call directly from timeline feedYesNo
Quick editing of task/meeting/call directlyYesYes[1]
Access to upcoming timeline on mobileNoNo

Capabilities on the List View (Portfolio) Level

Salesforce doesn’t provide capabilities to work with a timeline (both for historical and upcoming events) on the list view (portfolio) level, even though these capabilities significantly save time and help to review what important things were changed or planned by teammates or automated processes.

Similar to review timeline on the level of record, Sugar CRM provides capabilities to review on the level of portfolio both historical and upcoming events not only by activities but also by any other type of events, including custom ones. Besides, SugarCRM provides some additional features to make work of users more efficient and comfortable.

Salesforce Lightning Activity TimelineSugar
Event Management Suite
Historical Timeline (TimeLine Viewer)
Configuring a set of different filtered timeline feeds in the context of portfolioNoYes
Automatical refresh of timeline when list view filter changedYes
Displaying events from external systems on timelineYes
Access on mobileNo
Upcoming timeline (Need ToDo Viewer)
Review and filtering by particular type of upcoming eventsNoYes
Review and filtering by user or teamYes
Configuring a set of different filtered timeline feeds in the context of portfolioYes
Access on mobileNo

Capabilities on the Main Dashboard Level

The capability to see a timeline on the main dashboard significantly impacts managers’ work of all levels whose activity is tightly related to the work of the whole team and who have to see a comprehensive picture of changes that were made.

Sugar CRM provides a range of additional features to manage historical and upcoming timeline on the main dashboard.

Salesforce Lightning Activity TimelineSugar
Event Management Suite
Historical Timeline (TimeLine Viewer)
Filtering of timeline by particular set of CRM entities (accounts, leads, opportunities, cases, etc. including custom modules)NoYes
Configuring a set of different filtered timeline feedsYes
Review and analyse statistic of timeline eventsYes
Access on mobileYes
Upcoming timeline (Need ToDo Viewer)
Configuring a set of different filtered timeline feedsNoYes
Review and filtering by particular type of upcoming eventsYes
Review and filtering by user or teamYes
Review and analyse statistic of timeline eventsYes
Access on mobileNo

In the nutshell

As you can see, Sugar CRM provides much more comprehensive capabilities on the level of a particular CRM record and unique capabilities on the level of the whole system (main dashboards) and portfolios (list views). In combination with flexible configuring of custom events, the possibility to collect historical CRM events from external information systems and mobile access to historical timeline turns Sugar CRM in the 360° sonar of significant CRM events, which saves time for each CRM user on day-to-day activities.

Here you can find more about add-ons TimeLine Viewer and Need ToDo Viewer from Event Management Suite for Sugar:

TimeLine Viewer Need ToDo Viewer


[1]By using global «Quick create» menu («+» icon in the right upper corner)

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