ACCPAC Challenges Its Hosted Rivals

ACCPAC, a subsidiary of Computer Associates, today announced several new CRM products, including a new, hosted version of its CRM solution, at its partnership conference being held this week in Quebec City. Going up against hosted CRM applications like Salesforce.com, ACCPACcrm.com offers the full functionality of its traditional CRM suite, but at a much lower price point. "The market has changed, the channel is demanding a hosted model, and we are simply keeping up with that change," says David Hood, ACCPAC president and CEO, who adds that ACCPAC also created the ASP version to compete with the likes of Salesforce.com, Upshot, NetLedger, and other ASP CRM providers. Hood explains that ACCPACcrm.com users can begin with the hosted model, and easily switch to an in-house version at any time, if they so choose. "No one comes close to offering the freedom of choice ACCPAC offers today," he says. "It wipes out a lot of the analysis customers need to do before choosing between a hosted or in-house solution, says Ivan MacDonald, senior vice president of worldwide CRM operations at ACCPAC. "If they realize they need to take their solution in-house years from now, we'll be there to do that for them seamlessly." The hosted solution comes in two versions, an Enterprise edition priced at $69 per month per user, and the Sales Team version that is priced at $49 per month per user. ACCPAC also offers a five-user package of the Sales Team version for $995 per year. In addition to the debut of its hosted solution, ACCPAC announced it that will aggressively roll out new versions of its CRM suite, beginning in October with version 5.6. This version of the software includes upgrades like better integration with Microsoft Outlook. Version 5.7, which will come out in early 2004, will integrate ACCPAC CRM seamlessly with many back-office solutions, including Microsoft Great Plains. "ACCPAC CRM will have the tightest integration between applications, bar none," MacDonald says. All of this aggressive development is part of ACCPAC's plan to offer one tightly integrated, unified interface that provides a true end-to-end business solution, Hood says. Dubbed the Web and Wireless Framework, the open-standards architecture is still a way off. "The framework will support all functionalities in just over two years, but users can start benefiting from it today," Hood says.