GroupLink Delivers CRM Appliance

Besides grouping version 7 of GroupLink's Leads Generation, Sales Force Automation and Customer Satisfaction applications in one package, the CCE software now comes in appliance form. And because the product supports Novell NetWare and--with this release--Linux, it can be tailored to resellers' hearts content.

GroupLink offers solution providers three ways to deploy its software. The first is traditional on-site installation, while the second allows customers to drop-ship their hardware of choice to a solution provider, which then would configure the hardware with the operating system, database, system utilities, identity management services and CCE applications. Under the third approach, solution providers offer light, medium and robust hardware configurations, and within 15 minutes GroupLink can image the OS and other software components onto the hardware, update the system with the customer's data imported over the Internet, and configure the solution to the client's specifications. It is then shipped to the customer's site.

With the latter deployment method, customers can remotely test the system via the Web, paying for the appliance only after approving the resulting system.

"We build the system and prove in our site, and then we turn it over to customers. We will offer this ourselves initially, and perhaps the channel will take it on later," said David Turner, president and CEO of GroupLink, Bountiful, Utah.

"Because it's on the Linux platform, we can deliver products at a much lower cost," Turner said. "We can abstract out the licensing requirements for the OS and the database--we particularly use MySQL and PostgreSQL--and we have eliminated other variables by providing these platforms on an appliance. We think this is a compelling solution for resellers, since Linux lets them take a very functional product and form-fit it to their skills and customer specifics."

CCE's Linux flavor brings a new opportunity for many GroupLink solution providers.

"I like the appliance concept because it runs on NetWare and Linux," said Andreas Bach, owner of Bach Solutions, a Toronto-based solution provider that focuses on Novell-based collaboration systems. "There's a lot of buzz but also a lot of fear around Linux among customers, who don't know how to use it. This let's them play with Linux, and as a reseller, I can make sure it does what they want and they have their own data on it. And because I haven't done anything like a service migration before, I like that I'm not on the hook for getting it to work."

GroupLink CCE is available now in professional and enterprise licenses, with prices starting at $28,000 and $58,000, respectively, for up to 50 users, the company said.