Sage enters the CRM segment

Sage enters the CRM segment

	Published : Fri, 28 Oct 2005 09:05 By : James Rowe Print this Story

Sage Group Plc entered the hosted CRM segment in the UK by launching SageCRM.com, which is a hosted version of the existing Sage CRM Mid Market Edition.Sage said that it was the only company to provide local support through its large partner network.

Sage's marketing director Gerry Carr elaborated this point as he said: "What differentiates us is that we are bringing it to market through the channel. We have 6,500 partners...who are business experts. What that gives us is local touch, companies [our customers] can rely on." He said that Sage was unlike Salesforce.com and NetSuite which provide a centralized product, procure subscriptions and leave users clueless without any local support.

Sage stressed that its local support would also be directed towards business process management apart from only supporting the technical aspects of CRM.

Sage offers a 'Rent to Own' option where an organization by subscribing to the hosted service can avail the hosted service of its CRM for a standard rate of 50 pounds per month per user. This includes support. If a company wants to switch over to an on-premise model, Sage will discount the fees paid to date.

Sage also mentioned that it was offering the flexibility of either hosted or owned CRM for the convenience of more users.

Richard Bee, director CRM at Sage in UK, feels that as the hosted service is targeted at the small and the lower end of the mid-market, it is bound to bring in new business.

The hosted offering of Sage is less sophisticated when compared to NetSuite, Salesforce.com or Siebel. Vertical capability is not possible like in Siebel and it does not offer its existing integration packs for the hosted service users.

These drawbacks notwithstanding, Carr says: "Forget vertical, it is a one-to-one offering. The local touch is extreme differentiator to a US company offering a centralized product".