Latest CRM Software Industry News

Award-Winning Sage MAS 90 ERP & ACT! by Sage Combination Helps Improve Overall Company Efficiency by 300%
Irvine, CA – December 04, 2006 – Sage Software announced today that Litecubes, a leading manufacturer of novelty illuminated ice cubes and party favors, is using an integrated back- and front-office solution from Sage Software to dramatically boost company performance. The integrated business management solution includes two industry-leaders; the award-winning Sage MAS 90 ERP (enterprise resource planning) for automating and streamlining back-office functions, and the award-winning ACT! by Sage, the number one selling contact and customer management solution worldwide. The combined Sage Software solution replaced QuickBooks® and enabled Litecubes to streamline processes, increase efficiencies and grow into a highly profitable multimillion dollar company.

“At a single glance, the system allows us to see what is on a sales order, purchase order, in the warehouse, or on back order. This is information we never had before and lets us run the company smarter,” said Terry Hickey, vice president of sales and marketing at Litecubes. “What’s more, with QuickBooks we had three separate points of data entry when a Purchase Order came in. Sage MAS 90 has cut sales order processing time by 75 percent, plus overall efficiencies have improved by 300 percent, in large part because we haven’t had to hire new people to accommodate our rapid growth.”

Litecubes manufactures plastic, lighted square blocks that resemble the fanciest of ice cubes, plus numerous other illuminated novelties ideal for brightening up parties. The company uses Sage MAS 90 for automating and integrating the back-office operations, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, sales orders, purchase orders, bank reconciliations, credit card processing and inventory management. With ACT!, Litecubes users instantly access key contact and customer information, manage and prioritize activities, and track all contact-related communications to help grow productive business relationships. Sage MAS 90 coupled with ACT! has enabled Litecubes to seamlessly integrate important company data to better manage the company’s sales pipeline and improve customer service to a growing list of more than 3,000 customers.

“Because of the tight integration between ACT! and Sage MAS 90, it’s much easier to access our data on leads, and turn them into active customers,” said Hickey. “The system has enabled us to grow sales exponentially, without adding personnel, and we believe it will support our continued growth for a long, long time.”

When Litecubes outgrew QuickBooks, they turned to premiere Sage Software business partner Barsa Technology Solutions for a comprehensive, long-term business management solution. Barsa performed a complete business needs assessment, helped identify a solution that fit, performed installation, data conversion and training, plus continues to provide other quality services.

“One reason we selected Sage MAS 90 for our upgrade was because of the easy conversion path from QuickBooks via the Data Migrator tool,” said Hickey. “We were ecstatic that data on our 2,000-plus customers [at the time] converted seamlessly, as did all of our open invoices. We’d feared a horrendous upgrade process, but instead found it was relatively painless. We view this as a true success.”

To view more on Litecubes, a featured customer in Sage Software’s video library on successful customer installations, please visit http://www.sagesoftware.com/success/SageSuccessStories/m90_lightcube_vss.html.

Youth mentoring organization customizing SageCRM.com solution to further increase employee productivity and return value back to donors and volunteers
Scottsdale, AZ – November 30, 2006 – Sage Software today announced that Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Rochester, an affiliate of the national organization that helps children reach their potential through professionally supported one-to-one relationships, has implemented SageCRM.com to streamline its volunteer recruiting and fundraising processes. Since implementing SageCRM.com, Big Brothers Big Sisters has centralized more than 6,000 contact records into one database. The data organization and process enhancements have increased employees’ effectiveness for developing and managing relationships with new and current volunteers and donors.

Prior to implementing SageCRM.com, Big Brothers Big Sisters had a dozen fractured lists of volunteers, event attendees and donors that needed to be reorganized to help the organization better manage these lists and improve its service to the children of Greater Rochester. The organization evaluated several options before choosing SageCRM.com for its easy customization capabilities, all-inclusive hosted services pricing and Web efficiencies.

“We found that most CRM solutions were not specialized enough for non-profits. However, with SageCRM.com, we were able to easily customize the solution to fit our workflow,” said Jeff Newland, director for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Rochester. “Now, we manage all volunteer and donor outreach in SageCRM.com and are developing a way to calculate the total charitable impact of each relationship.”

Fifteen Big Brothers Big Sisters employees use SageCRM.com to create and manage their outreach plans for each prospective volunteer and donor, which include mailings and event invitations among other campaign activities. Tasks are automatically added to employees’ calendars to ensure that each prospect’s potential value to the organization is explored completely.

Big Brothers Big Sisters also uses the SageCRM.com customer service module to monitor and manage volunteer/child matches. The organization generates reports on a regular basis to see how many children are being served and what schools they attend. This data is critical for determining where the largest needs for additional volunteers and funds are.

Going forward, Big Brothers Big Sisters is implementing a customized SageCRM.com reporting tool that will present individual and overall impact data to all of its contributors. Volunteers will be given an outreach code that will be linked to their name in SageCRM.com. Big Brothers Big Sisters will tag all recruiting introductions and donations to their respective codes to generate impact statements for each volunteer.

“Big Brothers Big Sisters’ SageCRM.com implementation is a prime example of how non-profits can leverage the benefits of CRM in an affordable and easily managed format,” said Bill Hoffman, Sage CRM Solutions director of hosted services. “The combination of hosted services management and feature configuration capabilities has allowed the organization to enhance its internal processes and unify communication to its family of volunteers and donors.”

Sage CRM
Sage CRM is an easy to use and feature-rich CRM solution that integrates vital sales, marketing and customer support information for small and mid-sized businesses. Sage CRM provides flexible deployment options and is available as an on-demand CRM solution at SageCRM.com, or as an on-premises CRM system. Sage CRM also includes a remote data synchronization client and support for wireless devices.

Sage CRM and SageCRM.com are part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and medium-sized businesses that also includes ACT! by Sage and Sage CRM SalesLogix. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com  or call (800) 643-6400.

EmPulse email marketing solution for Sage CRM SalesLogix exhibiting alongside a range of integrated partner solutions
Nashville, TN – November 06, 2006 – At Sage Summit 2006, its annual customer conference, Sage Software introduced EmPulse as its latest Sage CRM Solutions Premier Solutions Partner. EmPulse provides a comprehensive set of easy-to-use, Web-based email marketing tools that ships integrated with Sage CRM SalesLogix v7. Users can enable the email services within Sage CRM SalesLogix to support opt-in email campaign and survey delivery to thousands of contacts. EmPulse, along with premier partner CRM solutions from Client 1, Endeavor Commerce, InaPlex and QGate are being demonstrated at the Sage Summit customer conference taking place November 5th-8th at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville.

Premier Solutions Partners develop technology solutions that integrate with Sage Software Mid-Market CRM products including Sage CRM, SageCRM.com and Sage CRM SalesLogix to address customers’ unique business process automation and database administration requirements. EmPulse email marketing specifically provides enhanced workflow automation, list segmentation, response tracking, budget and revenue tracking and campaign reporting capabilities within Sage CRM SalesLogix. Remote users can also view EmPulse data online.

“Robust email marketing features are among the most requested system enhancements by our customers,” said Elvin Monteleone, senior vice president and general manager for Sage Software CRM Solutions. “Integrating EmPulse technology directly with Sage CRM SalesLogix advances the out-of-box utility of our solution for marketers who want to fully realize the benefits of their CRM systems.”

EmPulse is shipping now with Sage CRM SalesLogix v7 and is part of the standard Sage CRM SalesLogix customer support plan. EmPulse services start as low as $99 per month. New customers who sign up for EmPulse e-mail marketing services within Sage CRM SalesLogix through December 31st 2006 will receive a free six-month subscription from EmPulse for plans providing up to 25,000 e-mails per month.

Sage CRM SalesLogix
With more than 300,000 users at over 7,300 companies, Sage CRM SalesLogix is the CRM leader for small to medium-sized businesses. Sage CRM SalesLogix delivers easy-to-use and integrated sales, marketing, customer service and support automation solutions that can be tailored to an organization’s unique customer acquisition, retention and development processes.

Sage CRM SalesLogix is part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and medium-sized businesses that also includes ACT! by Sage, Sage CRM and SageCRM.com. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com or call 800-643-6400.

Premier Solutions Partner products can be purchased through any qualified Sage CRM Solutions business partner. For more information call (800) 643-6400.

ROI Rocket using #1 selling ACT! contact and customer management solution integrated with online e-mail system to create industry-specific marketing campaigns
Scottsdale, AZ – November 02, 2006 – Sage Software today announced that ROI Rocket, a performance-based Internet affiliate marketing network, has integrated the ACT! by Sage contact and customer management solution with Swiftpage, an ACT! add-on solution that provides enhanced e-mail campaign features. ROI Rocket is using prospect contact data organized in ACT! for e-mail campaigns that are monitored with Swiftpage features, which return statistics including click-through rates and lead rankings into the ACT! database for ongoing marketing campaign analysis. ROI Rocket has significantly increased its prospect-to-customer conversion rate and revenue using this integrated solution.

ROI Rocket (www.roirocket.com) operates a pay-per-action network that connects Internet advertisers with Web content publishers who are willing to promote advertisers’ offers for a pre-determined commission. ROI Rocket’s innovative tracking technologies and proprietary affiliate management techniques identify valuable sales channels and track promotional arrangements between more than 7,500 advertisers and publishers in its network, ensuring that publishers are paid on a performance basis per action or sale their sites generate for each participating advertiser.

“ACT! helps us segment our affiliate advertisers and publishers by industry which has improved our ability to attract and do more business with these organizations, who are our customers,” explained Matt Frary, ROI Rocket CEO and co-founder. “Using Swiftpage e-mail campaign features with ACT! allows us to send a higher and more targeted frequency of Web banner advertising offers to our affiliates. We can track who opens and reads the e-mails to determine which of our offers will most likely be attractive to them in the future. Deploying this system has significantly increased our revenue.”

ROI Rocket uses the e-mail campaign segmentation data provided by Swiftpage in ACT! to prioritize sales opportunities based on client interests. Sales representatives use ACT! to track history of conversations with prospects and customers as well as to convert leads to closed sales using opportunity management features.

Swiftpage is the first online e-mail system for marketing and sales that is fully integrated into ACT!. Users can send up to 100,000 e-mails at once and are provided with detailed and graphical reporting at the contact level including metrics such as who opened an e-mail, how many times they opened an e-mail, which specific links were clicked on, etc. This data can be viewed online as well as in ACT! where users can associate rankings with leads.

“When ROI Rocket selected ACT! as their system of record, we were immediately able to streamline and improve their e-mail marketing processes by integrating Swiftpage functionality,” said Dan Ogdon, marketing director for Swiftpage. “ROI Rocket’s online advertising market is consistently seeing new competitors as barriers to entry in the online advertising market are lowering. Swiftpage and ACT! are providing the company with a technological advantage that allows it to efficiently keep in touch with its customers on a regular and highly targeted basis.”

Sage CRM SalesLogix recognized for outstanding technology achievement in Enterprise Software category
Scottsdale, AZ – October 25, 2006 – Sage Software today announced that Sage CRM SalesLogix has been recognized by VARBusiness magazine for outstanding achievement in technology innovation and was named a winner in the enterprise software category of the publication’s Tech Innovators award competition. Sage CRM SalesLogix was among nearly 700 entries submitted in 14 technology categories. VARBusiness magazine, which covers the business of technology integration, honored Sage Software at an awards ceremony held earlier this week in Huntington Beach, California.

“The constant feedback we seek from our business partners and customers to drive continuous Sage CRM SalesLogix enhancement continues to pay dividends,” said Elvin Monteleone, senior vice president and general manager for Sage Software Mid-Market CRM. “We strive to develop products that help our partners differentiate their value-added services and provide customers with significant business performance improvements. This honor from VARBusiness is made possible by a strong partner network that continuously supports our development efforts.”

Products were judged in two stages including first-round examination by VARBusiness’ team of technology editors, and final selection by a panel of judges assembled from the solution provider community. Judges scored products on criteria including how new and improved a technology is, its price/performance ratio and its revenue-generating potential for VARs.

“Innovations like what we’ve seen from Sage Software demonstrate the vibrancy and vitality of the industry,” says VARBusiness editor Lawrence M. Walsh. “They represent breakthroughs that will benefit our solution-provider readers and, in turn, the users of technology.”

Sage CRM SalesLogix
With more than 300,000 users at over 7,300 companies, Sage CRM SalesLogix is the CRM leader for small to medium-sized businesses. Sage CRM SalesLogix delivers easy-to-use and integrated sales, marketing, customer service and support automation solutions that can be tailored to an organization’s unique customer acquisition, retention and development processes.

Sage CRM SalesLogix is part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and medium-sized businesses that also includes ACT! by Sage, Sage CRM and SageCRM.com. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com or call 800-643-6400.

Survey reveals that small and mid-sized businesses face tough competition and must use customer data as a tangible asset and differentiator when considering exit strategies such as a trade sale, business succession, venture capital funding or public offer
Scottsdale, AZ – October 17, 2006 – Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) have significant opportunities to use CRM to obtain the best value from their business at an exit, succession or transition according to a new Sage Software Business Minds survey conducted by Vanson Bourne, an independent research company, on behalf of Sage Software. With a large number of SMBs looking to exit in the next few years, Sage warns these businesses need to find ways to compete more effectively and to differentiate themselves in a buyer’s market.

Having customer data in a single CRM system is a tangible asset according to 70 percent of respondents with such exit strategies. However, only 35 percent use a CRM solution to help advise on their business strategy. This problem is further accentuated by poor planning with 65 percent of SMBs not having or unsure about their exit strategy. The findings by Sage were part of a global study exploring the relationship between the use of customer data, business strategies and performance.

Sage believes that many SMBs are not putting customer data to its best use as a tangible asset when seeking an exit. Having a central record of all customer relationships is a tangible business and financial asset for companies seeking an exit, whether that is a trade sale, succession, venture capitalist or public offering. According to Sage, having a CRM system provides a strong negotiation tool in which to maximize the value from the business because it provides any future owner or manager insights into the customer base and opportunities to hit the ground running, but also minimizes disruption to customer service. Supporting this position was the finding that 48 percent of respondents said that CRM would reduce the risk of losing customers at an exit and would improve the continuity of the business during such a transition.

Dave Batt, senior vice president and general manager of Global CRM for Sage Software, said: “We believe SMBs have an opportunity to make the goodwill locked away in customer data a very tangible and accessible business asset. In particular, when considering any form of exit strategy customer data can provide insight into customer buying trends for buyers or investors. The ability to present customer data in a meaningful way not only helps negotiations, but provides future leaders of the business with visibility into the customer base. This ensures relationships are maintained and risks are reduced when exiting the business. In active markets like today, where businesses are consolidating to gain competitive strength, we urge SMBs to develop their exit strategy and ensure that CRM plays a central role in the planning process and as a negotiation tool.”

A CRM system is often seen as a tool to improve marketing, customer service, segmentation and productivity/efficiency, but is often forgotten at the point of exit. Many SMBs have failed to plan their exit, which puts customer service and future opportunities at risk. Only 35 percent of respondents to the Sage survey have taken steps to plan their ultimate exit even though 64 percent want to exit within one to ten years. Sage is concerned that 47 percent of respondents said that they would like to find more time for business planning and that a further 21 percent were too busy to plan the business.

Planning the exit at the outset of the business will help organizations shape and mold the business to that objective. Furthermore, using customer data will further help to make decisions that will help fulfill the exit strategy, according to Sage. Today, the market is one of consolidation and heavy M&A activity, while IPOs have slowed down. According to the survey, selling to a third party (34%) was seen as the most popular exit strategy globally with Australia (53%), USA (42%) and UK (39%) making it their clear choice. In France, it was split evenly (29% each) for family succession, business partner takeover and dissolving the business, while businesses in Germany (34%) planned for a family succession. In today’s consolidation and M&A market, it is not surprising that trade sales are high on the exit agenda but they should not be automatic choices.

Customer relationship management industry analyst, Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research Group, said: “It is no secret that customer data is crucial for SMBs that want to maximize their value at exit. A CRM system is a natural customer information repository and the best way of accessing and managing customer data. CRM is an important asset when seeking an exit.”

“The Sage survey yielded further interesting results,” continued Pombriant. “For example, the majority of SMBs recognize that CRM is a tangible business asset but few are using it as one. Customers are an important asset that many SMBs overlook when valuing a company. If organizations believe that customers are at the heart of business — which most undoubtedly will — then they should consider how to best manage customer data right through the business lifecycle to an exit.”

The Sage research surveyed 800 SMBs of all revenue sizes and industries across six countries, ranging from zero to 1000 employees, by Web and telephone during July 2006. The UK and USA provided 200 respondents each, while Australia, France, Germany and Ireland each had 100 respondents.

ACT! by Sage, Sage CRM, SageCRM.com and Sage CRM SalesLogix comprise Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and mid-sized businesses. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com.

Scottsdale, AZ – October 03, 2006 – Sage Software and Lexmark International today announced a joint marketing program to provide value-added productivity solutions for small and medium business (SMB) customers.

From October 1st through December 2nd 2006, Sage Software will offer eligible new purchasers of the ACT! by Sage contact and customer management solution a free* Lexmark X7350 Office All-in-One printer ($129.99 MSRP) or X8350 Office All-in-One Plus Photo printer ($149.99 MSRP) via a mail-in rebate.

“We are excited to work with Sage on these compelling productivity solutions for SMB customers through the U.S. retail channel,” said Najib Bahous, Lexmark vice president and president of its Consumer Printer Division. “Lexmark’s all-in-one printers are ideal for helping ACT! users achieve professional, high-quality print output to further leverage their customer data and increase overall productivity.”

Authorized retailers participating in the above ACT! and Lexmark printer promotion include: Buy.com, CDW, CompUSA, Insight, Microcenter, Office Depot, PC Connection, Staples and Zones. The promotion will also be available via the ACT! Web site, www.act.com .

“By collaborating with Lexmark, we are offering our like-minded base of individual and small business customers an affordable, value-added productivity tool combination backed by two leading technology vendors,” noted Joe Bergera, senior vice president and general manager for Sage Software. “Lexmark’s all-in-one printers enable multiple printing, copying, scanning, and faxing functions that can provide ACT! users with many administrative efficiencies when managing their valuable customer information.”

ACT! by Sage
ACT!, first introduced in 1987, is the number one selling contact and customer management solution and preferred choice of over 2.5 million registered users and more than 35,000 corporate customers to organize, access and manage their critical customer information. ACT! delivers powerful contact and customer management capabilities with flexible deployment and customization options to help individuals, selling professionals and corporate workgroups improve productivity and increase sales.

ACT! by Sage is part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and mid-sized businesses that also includes Sage CRM, SageCRM.com and Sage CRM SalesLogix. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com or call 888-855-5222.

Customized account management helps sales team prioritize activities by projected customer value
Scottsdale, AZ – September 28, 2006 – Sage Software today announced that LEGOLAND California, a 128-acre interactive children’s theme park, has successfully used Sage CRM SalesLogix to increase its consignment contract and prepaid sales accounts nearly threefold, growing from 250 to 725 accounts, since implementing the solution in 2002. LEGOLAND attributes its growth to prioritized sales activities that employees identify using customized Sage CRM SalesLogix account management capabilities.

“With Sage CRM SalesLogix, our salespeople know exactly where to direct their attention,” said Colin Ross, sales manager for LEGOLAND California. “We can generate reports that clearly identify prime targets, enabling our team to be proactive and more efficient in servicing our customers. Our account growth is directly related to our use of Sage CRM SalesLogix.”

Customized CRM and Employee Adoption Revitalizes Sales Strategy
LEGOLAND California primarily sells theme park admission tickets on consignment, a practice that differentiates the park from its competitors. When a customer such as a hotel or corporation wants to offer its guests or employees discounted tickets to LEGOLAND, it purchases a year-long consignment contract that provides an allotment of tickets and provisions for unused tickets to be returned for credit.

The theme park opened in 1999 using a contact management program to track its customer interactions, but employees never fully embraced the system. LEGOLAND defined and instituted a formal sales methodology in 2002, and selected Sage CRM SalesLogix to support its new focus on identifying and prioritizing sales activities with its most valuable customers.

LEGOLAND worked with Spinnaker Network Solutions, Inc., a Sage CRM Solutions business partner, to implement Sage CRM SalesLogix. Spinnaker customized the system to automate LEGOLAND’s consignment contract sales model, and provided a training program that has achieved 100 percent employee adoption of Sage CRM SalesLogix.

Spinnaker also created a tickets tab for the Sage CRM SalesLogix account detail screen that has further aided LEGOLAND employees’ use of the system. Sales representatives can track detailed account information including the number of tickets ordered, price per ticket, how many tickets have been redeemed and when. LEGOLAND management can now more accurately make revenue projections and set sales team priorities based on each account’s running balance, the likely number of tickets to be returned for credit, and identification of customers who need their ticket supplies replenished.

“Sage CRM SalesLogix has become an integral tool that LEGOLAND relies heavily upon,” said Mitch Cannady, president for Spinnaker Network Solutions, Inc. “We customized the system to allow LEGOLAND employees to track complex account information that makes a positive daily impact on the company’s financial success.”

“LEGOLAND’s CRM results are a wonderful example of what is possible using Sage CRM SalesLogix,” added Bob Neeser, vice president of sales for Sage CRM Solutions. “LEGOLAND began with specific customer-focused processes in mind and, leveraging the flexibility of Sage CRM SalesLogix, was able to match the system to their processes and not the other way around.”

Sage CRM SalesLogix
With more than 300,000 users at over 7,300 companies, Sage CRM SalesLogix is the CRM leader for small to medium-sized businesses. Sage CRM SalesLogix delivers easy-to-use and integrated sales, marketing, customer service and support automation solutions that can be tailored to an organization’s unique customer acquisition, retention and development processes.

Sage CRM SalesLogix is part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and medium-sized businesses that also includes ACT! by Sage, Sage CRM and SageCRM.com. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com or call 800-643-6400.

Sales consulting and lead generation management company creates workflow efficiencies and new revenue stream using customized SageCRM.com system
Scottsdale, AZ – September 22, 2006 – Sage Software today announced that Vendere Partners, Inc., a Dallas-based sales consulting and lead generation management company, has used SageCRM.com to successfully automate workflow for 24 employees as well as manage its sales outsourcing services. SageCRM.com reporting capabilities have also helped Vendere create an additional revenue stream by providing a system to more effectively collect and package industry marketing intelligence for its clients. New revenues combined with the organization’s increased efficiencies using SageCRM.com have resulted in a $150,000 return on Vendere’s first-year CRM investment.

Vendere began providing sales force outsourcing and lead generation services for technology companies in 2003. With its continued growth, the company found it needed a CRM solution that could provide visibility into employee activities and enable detailed lead and opportunity management for its clients. Historically, during the course of its business activities, Vendere was called upon by clients to use various CRM systems. The company ultimately decided to standardize on a single system and chose SageCRM.com, among the alternative solutions with which it was familiar, to manage its own business processes and streamline the outsourced services it offers clients.

“SageCRM.com offered the usability and customizations that Salesforce.com, NetSuite and Microsoft CRM could not provide us,” said Sean O’Neil, vice president for Vendere Partners, Inc. “Thanks to these capabilities, we have been able to achieve a ten-fold return on our investment in just one year. We were also able to add a new source of revenue to our business which was an unplanned and additional benefit of our SageCRM.com implementation.”

Customizations Extend CRM Value

Vendere worked with Ascendix Technologies, a Sage CRM Solutions business partner, to customize SageCRM.com for its targeted account and solution selling methodologies. Ascendix also helped customize inside sales pipeline capabilities that managers use for lead generation, qualification and client campaign tracking.

“Vendere wanted something that was easy to use, and SageCRM.com was the perfect fit because it offers simplified database configuration and administration,” said Wes Snow, president for Ascendix. “Rather than changing Vendere’s business processes to fit the technology, we were able to help the company tailor SageCRM.com to support its preferred workflow. They were up and running in a week.”

SageCRM.com data mining and reporting capabilities have helped Vendere increase revenue by adding new competitive information tracking services. Industry marketing and product-specific information collected from lead generation and sales calls are packaged into custom reports that Vendere sells to organizations seeking market intelligence, creating an additional revenue stream for the company.

Vendere also uses SageCRM.com to generate reports that include sales conversation notes detailing why a prospect was or was not interested in a client’s product or service. The information is analyzed to make sales scripting and process adjustments for unique selling situations.

“The ROI Vendere has achieved using SageCRM.com is outstanding,” said Bob Neeser, vice president of sales for Sage CRM Solutions. “Just as important is the continued value that will come from using CRM to improve all aspects of Vendere’s customer interactions. These additional benefits include increased revenues, reduced operating costs and longer lasting customer relationships.”

Sage CRM
Sage CRM is an easy to use and feature rich CRM solution that integrates vital sales, marketing and customer support information for small and mid-sized businesses. Sage CRM provides flexible deployment options and is available as an on-demand CRM solution at SageCRM.com, or as an on-premises CRM system. Sage CRM also includes a remote data synchronization client and support for wireless devices.

Sage CRM and SageCRM.com are part of Sage CRM Solutions, the only family of CRM products designed specifically for the needs of small and medium-sized businesses that also includes ACT! by Sage and Sage CRM SalesLogix. For more details, visit www.sagecrmsolutions.com  or call (800) 643-6400.

Scottsdale, AZ – September 14, 2006 – Sage Software, the North American subsidiary of The Sage Group plc, announced today that it has acquired the Corum Mobile Division of Corum Corporation, a privately-held software consulting and development company based in Concord, ON, Canada that specializes in mobile customer relationship management (CRM) technology. The acquisition was completed through Sage Software’s Canadian subsidiary, Sage Software Canada, Ltd. The acquisition solidifies Sage Software’s current and planned use of Corum’s industry-leading mobile CRM technology, which is already fully integrated with and available for Sage CRM SalesLogix. This mobile access technology will eventually be made available for all Sage CRM Solutions customers around the world, including millions of Sage CRM, SageCRM.com, and ACT! by Sage clients. The Corum Mobile Platform provides the infrastructure and functionality needed to design, build, deploy and manage scalable mobile applications that include mobile sales and field service automation.

“The Corum acquisition strengthens our CRM strategy because it allows Sage to broaden its CRM mobility solutions with a unified technology,” said Dave Batt, senior vice president and general manager of Global CRM for the Sage Group plc. “Sage CRM SalesLogix clients are already benefiting from Corum mobile access technology through a previously existing partnership. Recent research confirms mobile CRM technology is becoming increasingly important to our customers, and this acquisition strongly supports our desire to further address that need on a global basis, across our entire Sage CRM Solutions portfolio.”

Corum Corporation has been developing add-on solutions for Sage CRM SalesLogix since the product was first launched in April 1997. The Corum Mobile Platform supports BlackBerry, Microsoft Windows Mobile, and Palm hand-held devices using the Windows Mobile operating system, and provides users with secure, always available, access to critical information within their existing enterprise software. Combining the Corum mobile platform with the Sage CRM SalesLogix product provides users with more access options to their data wherever they are and whenever they need it — via the office, the Web, wireless, dial-up or cradle synchronization.

A recent study published by the Aberdeen Group supports the strategic importance of this acquisition by Sage Software in response to the growing demand for mobile technology solutions that expand the functionality of CRM systems. Comments Leslie Ament, Aberdeen Group practice leader and director for Customer Intelligence Research, “The increasing demands and pressures of selling within a global environment require that sales professionals have mobile access to real-time customer data.” Ament continues, “Our research demonstrates that top performing organizations provide sales professionals with access to vital customer information such as: key accounts, order status, and inventory availability at the point of customer interaction as a competitive edge. Annual benefits measured by these best-in-class performers include: revenue growth, increased sales productivity, and enhanced customer loyalty and retention rates.”1

Ronn Duby, Aberdeen Group research analyst and co-author of the report adds, “47 percent of all organizations polled plan on expanding their usage of mobile CRM technology within the next six months.”1

“This acquisition provides a path to enhance our best-of-breed client access environments for Sage CRM SalesLogix, including Blackberry, Pocket PC, Web client and remote users,” said Elvin Monteleone, Sage Software senior vice president and general manager for Sage CRM Solutions. “We have noted a significant growth of interest in mobile CRM in our customer base in North America, and in conversations with our partners and prospective customers. This acquisition demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing them with the technology they need to continue to succeed.”

The addition of mobile CRM is another step in Sage’s global CRM strategy that provides small and mid-sized businesses with the broadest portfolio of customer relationship management products from any vendor. Sage’s new global approach to CRM takes advantage of the company’s strong local presence in countries around the world, where sales, service, and support capabilities serve 5 million businesses and work with 23,000 business partners and 40,000 accountant partners.

In addition to the Corum acquisition that strengthens the company’s mobile CRM offerings, in the past 10 months Sage has delivered Sage CRM SalesLogix v7; ACT! by Sage 2007 including Windows, Web, and Palm OS products; announced Sage Migrator, CRM software migration solutions; launched a global localization and hosting center; strengthened regional delivery and support capabilities with new training and education programs in Asia Pacific, Germany, Spain, and France; launched unified Sage CRM Solutions branding around the world; and launched Sage CRM in Spanish, French, and German versions.

1Aberdeen Group, “Mobile Sales Solutions Benchmark Report,” published August 2006.