TMCnet News

Sage CRM Chosen By Yocream
[February 24, 2006]

Sage CRM Chosen By Yocream


By DAVID SIMS

TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist

Hot on the heels of its Dublin deal a couple days ago, Sage Software is announcing that Yocream International, Inc., a producer of frozen yogurt marketed under the Dannon Yocream Frozen Yogurt brand, has implemented Sage CRM to "automate sales processes and enable consistent information sharing for its on-premises and field sales representatives," according to Sage officials.



A couple days ago Sage announced the addition of a Dublin-based localization and application hosting center to its global CRM infrastructure, which company officials say will enable the company to "accelerate the development of localized CRM products to meet country-specific needs," as well as "provide hosted CRM services to small and medium-sized businesses throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa."

This latest development is considered a major step by Sage, as far as its global CRM strategy introduced in October 2005 goes. Sage's global CRM organization oversees the company's Sage CRM Products portfolio, which includes the popular product ACT! by Sage for individuals, small businesses and enterprise workgroups.


Yocream also uses the Sage Accpac ERP system to manage its general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory control and order entry processes.

"Our biggest gain from Sage CRM is the ability to share customer and prospect databases with all users," explained Brad Gaylor, information systems manager for Yocream International, Inc. "We were aiming to better manage leads and accomplish more sales growth, which is what we are seeing as a result of implementing Sage CRM."

Yocream provides frozen yogurt and beverages for food service distributors who sell to customers at convenience stores, restaurants, schools and hospitals.

Twenty-four Yocream employees use Sage CRM, including nine sales team members who are equipped with the Sage CRM Solo client for remote synchronization. Field representatives use the system on wireless laptops, at home and during travel by synchronizing prospect and customer data to the company database whenever convenient to their schedules.

In a related development, according to Datamonitor, Sage has "bought non-exclusive rights to certain Timeline Inc. software patents that automate the design of data marts and OLAP cubes, a move that will guard against possible patent infringement lawsuits down the road."

Under the terms of the agreement, Datamonitor says, Sage will be provide integrated data mart capabilities within its ERP, accounting, CRM and business intelligence products which are aimed at small and medium-sized firms.

"Timeline, which is based in Irvine, California, is a curious company to say the least," the research firm writes. "Its corporate boilerplate bills the company as a developer and marketer of patented Microsoft Windows-based financial management reporting software… however it seems the company also makes a fair living out of defending its patents in court, rather than selling software."

Sage CEO Ron Verni said a new product, called Sage Intelligent Reporting, will be launched in March initially to Sage's Line 50 UK-based customers. "This will deliver true BI capability out-of-the-box for small businesses."

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.


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