Best Outlines Application Integration Strategy To Partners

Dubbed Best Suites for Vertical Industries, the new integrated suite offering consists of a base accounting package that is then packaged with additional business management applications such as CRM or human resource modules.

At the core of Best Suites is a Best Software Integration Framework, which is based on an EAI engine developed by Best that is based on Microsoft.Net and XML technologies and a new common user interface for applications from Best that is called the Best Software Common Desktop.

According to Best Software CEO Ron Verni, the integrated suite is needed to help Best Software partners compete more effectively with integrated suites from Microsoft and SAP that are targeted at the small and medium business markets.

"We've create a common look a feel that sits across the top of the products and then we created a framework that allows all the applications to speak to each other," said Verni.

"We're also taking that to the next logical level, which is the idea of vertical suites," he added. During the next 12 to 24 months, Best Software will roll out versions of Best Suites that will be targeted at specific vertical industries.

For Best Software, Best Suites is a critical first step towards providing a common application infrastructure for the diverse number of partners that the company is trying to fashion into a common channel community.

Included in the Best Software portfolio is the Peachtree accounting software series, Accpac accounting software, SalesLogic sales force automation software, Platinum accounting software and MAS 90 and 200 accounting software.

As part of an effort to reduce channel conflict among partners within the Best Software community, Verni this week outlined a market segmentation strategy for the company.

As part of that effort, the small business portfolio of offerings includes Peachtree and TimeSlips billing management software. The mid-market portfolio includes Abra HR software, Accpac, BusinessVison and BusinessWorks accounting software, CPASoftware, FAS Suite, MIP Fundraising, Platinum and Timberline Office project management software. For the small enterprise, Best Software will market SalesLogix along with MAS 90 and MAS 200. "We're trying to put together a market map so people understand how things fit," said Verni. "The one caveat I always give folks is that nothing is perfect, so there are going to gray areas where we have overlap."

Taylor McDonald, Best Software senior vice president, business partners, said he is committed to refereeing any potential conflicts between partners by directly intervening with customers to settle the issue.

"If we find that one partner is competing with another by lying about the capabilities of a given product, we think that partner should be punished," said McDonald.

McDonald also said that Best Software is committed to helping train partners sell new products that they add to their portfolio under a Partners for Growth program that was announced at the conference. That program calls for Best Software to spend $1 million on helping 100 Best Software partners train a total of 100 new sales people by September.

In addition, Best Software announced a special program under which it would give 50 percent margins to partners who sell the hosted version of its Accpac CRM offering between now and the end of September (See related story: Best Software Spurs Channel To Compete For Hosted CRM Business).

Other channel specific initiatives launched by the company include cash incentives for acquiring new customers, a simpler cross-product referral process for lead generation and the ability to leverage Best Software's volume discounts with its suppliers.

But while most solution providers at the conference were optimistic about the potential opportunity to sell more products from the same vendor, others remain skeptical.

"A new customer or a customer with a new product is the most expensive kind of customer you can have," said Amjad Khan, a principal with AIM Services in Los Angeles. "Most customers today are still using less than 20 percent of the features of the existing products, so I would rather concentrate on making more money from my existing customers."