Best Software's Suite Integration Moves

Dubbed Best Suites for Vertical Industries, the new integrated 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 Best Software Integration Framework, based on an EAI engine developed by Best Software that utilizes Microsoft.Net and XML technologies, and a new common user interface for applications called the Best Software Common Desktop.

Best Software CEO Ron Verni said the integrated suite will help Best Software partners compete more effectively with integrated suites from Microsoft and SAP that are targeted at the SMB markets.

"We've created a common look and 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," he said. "We're also taking that to the next logical level, which is the idea of vertical suites." During the next 12 to 24 months, Best Software plans to roll out versions of Best Suites for specific vertical industries.

Best Suites is a critical first step toward providing a common application infrastructure for the diverse number of partners that Best Software is trying to fashion into a common channel community. The Best Software portfolio includes SalesLogix salesforce automation software and Peachtree, Accpac, Platinum, MAS 90 and MAS 200 accounting software. As part of an effort to reduce channel conflict among Best Software partners, Verni outlined a market segmentation strategy. Under the plan, the small-business portfolio of offerings includes Peachtree and TimeSlips billing management software. The midmarket 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," Verni said. "The one caveat I always give folks is that nothing is perfect, so there are going to be gray areas where we have overlap." Taylor MacDonald, Best Software's senior vice president, business partners, said he will referee any potential conflicts between partners by directly intervening. "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," MacDonald said.

Best Software will help train partners to sell new products that they can add to their portfolio under a Partners for Growth program. That program calls for Best Software to spend $1 million to help 100 Best Software partners train a total of 100 new salespeople by September.

In addition, Best Software announced a special program under which it will give 50 percent margins to partners that sell the hosted version of its Accpac CRM offering between now and the end of September.

Alex Solomon, a principal of Net@Work, a New York-based solution provider, said the margin incentives are an excellent tool to motivate his organization to sell hosted CRM applications against Salesforce.com, which has a largely direct model.

"We have a lot of deals pending where the customer is weighing deploying software or using the hosted version. We didn't have as much of an incentive to push the hosted version before, but now we do," he said. "And later on we can upgrade the customer to the packaged version of Accpac as they grow."