Data integration vendor Apatar has introduced a software tool for connecting SugarCRM, an open-source customer relationship management suite, with third party applications.

The SugarCRM connector is the latest addition to Apatar's open-source software package for filtering, validating and cleansing data from a variety of data stores and applications. The package includes a PC client that is available as a graphical user interface or a command line interface and a server engine that runs on a Java virtual machine, making it independent of the underlying operating system.

The latest connector provides SugarCRM users with access to customer information in MySQL, Microsoft SQL and Oracle databases; Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and CSV/TXT files; Salesforce.com and a variety of Web 2.0 destinations, such as Amazon S3 and RSS feeds. The company claims its visual user interface makes it possible for non-technical workers to synchronize data from various sources. Apatar's software effectively eliminates data duplication and provides e-mail and postal addresses verification, as well as other capabilities.

The new connector, launched last week, is available for download at no charge. The tool supports SugarCRM version 5.0 or earlier for Windows, and version 5.1 or earlier for Linux and Mac OS.