SalesLogix 6 To Include Web, Outlook Links

The next major release of SalesLogix will bring virtually all of the features and functions of the LAN-based CRM product to the Web, the company said.

Due next fall, SalesLogix 6 will also offer complete integration with Microsoft Outlook and a Visual Basic-like Interface, said Kevin Myers, vice president of research and business development for the SalesLogix division of Interact Commerce, based here. A big focus will be enabling that product to bring back-office data into the client application.

The company is also working with Vaultus to implement SalesLogix natively on the PocketPC and to provide faster wireless access to data for roaming professionals, and with Fujitsu on support for a new generation of tablet-based computers

The next release will bring full Outlook integration to the Saleslogix Web client, the company said.

Outlook integration is critical for many customers, said Joe Basile, director of CRM for e-Partners, an Acton, Mass.-based solution provider. "I'm at a sales site now, and the sales force is ecstatic about that [capability]. They can now use the application they want to,because they're in Outlook all the time."

A big focus for Interact over time is moving current Act customers to SalesLogix. Act is a contact management application popular with many salespeople whereas SalesLogix is a more customizable CRM application suited for small and midsize businesses.

Larry Cummings, president of SyncSite, a Birmingham, Ala., reseller, said bridging the vastly different contact management and CRM worlds can be a difficult task, but one that provides a lot of opportunities.

Interact and Best Software, its sibling group, are both owned by London-based Sage Group Plc. The wealth of corporate names, not to mention the individual products within the groups, present something of a "brand problem" for the company, Myers said.

Interact was formerly known as SalesLogix, which re-purchased Act from Symantec, which had bought it a few years before,in January 2000. It changed its name to Interact four months later.

Sage Group Plc bought Interact for $260 million last May. Now Interact comprises Act Software, SalesLogix and TeleMagic. Sage's Best Software, meanwhile, sells Best Enterprise Suite, MAS 90 and MAS 200, Platinum, Abra, Peachtree, Timeslips and BusinessWorks accounting applications.