Accpac Unveils Hosted CRM Initiative

The Pleasanton, Calif.-based vendor, a division of Computer Associates International, opened the show here in true "Quebecoit style," with a musical family act: three brothers and a sister performing a string-quartet rendition of rock-group Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Afterwards, Accpac President and CEO David Hood took the stage to discuss the vendor's continuing efforts to deliver end-to-end business management applications to small and midsize businesses around the world.

"There are four requirements for our products," Hood said during his keynote at the Quebec City Conference Center. "They need to cross country borders. They need to integrate out of the box. They have to meet the requirements of SMBs, and they need the support of of a global SMB channel."

First, the vendor unveiled ACCPACcrm.com, an online service for hosted CRM. In the past year, Accpac's CRM partner roster, which includes solution providers, consultants and ISVs, has grown to 650 from 150, and still, the CRM space has been penetrated only about 20 percent, Hood said.

According to the Aberdeen Group, worldwide spending in the online CRM space is expected to increase to $1.99 billion in 2006 from $189 million in 2002.

ACCPACcrm.com integrates with back-office accounting packages,both Accpac's and those of other vendors,and offers advanced customization capabilities, Hood said.

For solution provider partners, the online CRM service presents a stable, recurring revenue stream and an opportunity to win new customers. Partners get 20 percent of each customer's monthly charge for the hosted service, plus whatever revenue they generate for deployment, training and customization, he said.

ACCPACcrm.com is currently based on version 5.5 of Accpac's CRM offering, but v5.6 is due out in the next few months and v5.7 is slated for early 2004.

Accpac also rolled out v5.2 and v7.2 of its Advantage Series and Pro Series accounting packages, respectively. Those accounting products form the basis of the vendor's integrated line card, which includes offerings for EDI, e-commerce, human resources management and warehouse management.