CA's Accpac Balances Out Product Lineup

Best known as an accounting software vendor, the Computer Associates International subsidiary over the past two years has expanded its lineup to include products in areas such as e-commerce, CRM, warehouse management and human resource management.

Through its Accpac Online hosting service, the company also offers applications using an ASP model, giving solution providers more options as they look to create solutions that best fit customers' needs, said Accpac executives.

"What we try to do is look at our applications as being deployment-neutral, meaning we want you to pick Accpac because they're the best solutions," said Larry Dimitri, senior vice president of Internet business at Pleasanton-based Accpac. "Then we want to figure out what's the way that makes the most sense for your organization to utilize them, whether that be running in-house solely, in-house with your own accessibility through the Web or hosting it entirely with Accpac Online."

Dimitri said Accpac's application-hosting customers feel more comfortable with the ASP model knowing that the company that developed the software is the same company hosting it.

The expansion of Accpac's product line, coupled with its hosting capabilities, gives the company's 5,000 worldwide solution provider partners a broad palette with which to target midsize clients, said Steve Thompson, vice president of channel development at Accpac.

"The opportunity is so much greater today than it has been in the past," Thompson said. "The needs of the midmarket are the same as large enterprises, they just can't afford to pay for all that integration work and endless implementation," he said.

Despite the breadth of Accpac's product lineup, the company's software offerings are cleanly integrated and work well together, said Laurie Notarianni, partner at Pyramid Consulting, a solution provider based in Uniondale, N.Y.

"They really keep reinventing themselves," she said.

For solution providers reselling Accpac's hosted solutions, the biggest challenge has been adapting to monthly subscription-based revenue rather than the up-front revenue that's associated with traditional product sales, Dimitri said.

"People in some cases are saying, 'Well, that's great that on an annuity basis that I'll make more money down the road, but how does that help me meet my payroll today if I'm used to getting a big check when I sell boxed product?' " he said.

To help partners make the adjustment, Accpac added in July a new payment option that allows partners to take up-front payment for a portion of customers' contracts, which typically cover a two-year term, Dimitri said.

"We tried to make it so that regardless of which one they sell, their revenue stream is going to stay pretty consistent," he said.

Both Accpac and its solution provider partners said interest from customers in hosted applications is on the rise, despite the well-publicized fall of companies such as Exodus Communications and other hosting providers and ASPs after the collapse of the dot-com boom.

"If I've got 10 people a month asking about Accpac, one in 10 were asking about hosting three years ago. This year, three or four are asking about it," said Scott McMillian, president of Advanced Applications, a solution provider based in Houston.

Because of the public demise of so many start-up service providers, customers that are interested in application hosting are looking for providers such as Accpac,a more than 20-year-old company with the backing of parent company CA,with a proven track record, McMillian said.

"Hosting is on the rise, but it's hosting with familiar names," he said.

Accpac's application-hosting services are particularly attractive to customers with multiple locations, Notarianni said.

"[Customers don't want to put additional people or infrastructure on board," she said.