Exact Recruiting VARs For Midmarket Push

James Kent, vice president of sales and marketing at Exact, said the company is aiming to add 30 to 50 new solution providers in the next 15 months to sell the product.

Exact, which has a large booth on the Comdex show floor, launched the suite in October.

Kent said the company is looking for solution providers who have both front-office and back-office integration expertise. He said solution providers can get up to speed much more quickly on e-Synergy than on ERP products from rivals including SAP and PeopleSoft.

"This is a rapid-implementation learning curve," Kent said. "It takes a year before a solution provider is up to speed on SAP."

The executive said solution providers can be out selling e-Synergy in about 90 days. Exact, Andover, Md., plans to hire a new channel program manager in the next several weeks.

Kent said the product is priced to compete with offerings from rivals including J.D. Edwards. Pricing is set at $1,000 per user with a 20 percent annual maintenance and support fee. Kent said the product is being well-received because of the investments businesses are making to reduce costs.

"In this market, people are looking for ways to cut costs and this is a tool to help them do that," Kent said.

Kent shrugged off competition from SAP and PeopleSoft in the midmarket. "It is easier to move up than it is to move down," he said. "They are going to have trouble with their overhead and cost structure.

"People will invest in front-office applications, especially with cost reductions and efficiencies they get from e-Synergy," Kent said.

Exact also unveiled new back-office integration capabilities for e-Synergy. On the show floor, Exact demonstrated e-Synergy's ability to integrate with midmarket ERP systems such as Macola, JobBoss, Globe2000 and Great Plains.

Exact, a division of Exact Holding NV--a leading supplier of CRM and accounting solutions located in the Netherlands-- is made up of the former Macola Software and Kewill ERP companies.

"The midmarket opportunity is huge," Kent said. "Why go after the big enterprise market? It is saturated."