FirstWave Pushes eCRM 7.0

FirstWave is fully making the transition from an integration and services company to a CRM application developer and plans to release its eCRM suite v.7.0 on Monday targeting Fortune 1000 clients.

The company, originally founded as Brock Control Systems in 1984, is in the process of courting integrators and consultants to help sell and service eCRM 7.0. The suite is entirely Web-based and includes: FirstWave eSales, eService, eMarketing, u.Dialog and eWorkbench. Although FirstWave currently has an internal Professional Services Organization, it believes recruiting specialized channel partners will help it penetrate more accounts, according to Richard Brock, founder and president of FirstWave.

"Businesses of all kinds are finding they need the bottom-line results that Web-based CRM solutions can bring but without the cost, time and resources required by many of the current CRM solutions," Brock said. FirstWave eCRM can be implemented and fully operational in less than 60 days, he said.

In order to do this, FirstWave, based in Atlanta, is on a recruitment drive for channel partners, Brock says. Already, the company has five channel partners signed up and is in the process of establishing "rules of engagement" between these companies and its own services organization, says. In addition, FirstWave is working on a procedure to train the employees of its channel partners in order to build better integration and trust between organizations.

"We realize the importance of getting these partners onboard and we need to work with them to grow their business as well as ours," Brock said.

Earlier this month, FirstWave also reported its financial results for its fourth quarter of 2001. The company earned $309,000, or 15 cents a share, on $2.86 million in revenue. This compares with a $309,000 loss on $2.05 million in sales for the same quarter in fiscal 2000.

For fiscal 2001, FirstWave's revenue dropped 10.5 percent to $8.55 million from $9.5 million in 2000. The company's loss narrowed, however, to $1.8 million for 2001 compared with a $6.1 million loss in 2000.