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Avidian Upgrades CRM Product Prophet 3.0
TMCnet Contributing Editor
Bellevue, Washington-based Avidian Technologies has announced that it now provides support for Terminal Server and more advanced User Permissions in Prophet 3.0, its Outlook-based sales software.
Both features are available to existing customers as an update and will ship with all subsequent Prophet purchases.
These added features are designed to give companies using Prophet “greater control over their sales data and easier access for all users,” according to James Wong, CEO and co-founder of Avidian Technologies.
“This update to Prophet answers the call from our customers for an easy way to maintain better control and security over their sales data,” said Wong. “With support for Terminal Server we’ve broadened the options for accessing sales information.”
According to company officials, support for Terminal Server allows users access to their Prophet data through a Terminal Server session, providing ease of access and mobility, as users can access their Prophet data from any computer with the Terminal Server interface.
Terminal Server also permits installation from the central server, eliminating the need for IT to touch each computer.
User Permissions give companies the ability to create a hierarchy within Prophet so they can divide their customer information into teams, regions, territories, or any groupings they wish to create. Users see only the information they need to see and are able to share information with the right people.
Management can create sales reports for any group within the hierarchy such as a specific sales representative, team, region, or the company as a whole, providing a global view or a detailed look at performance and results.
Unlike traditional CRM or sales management software, company officials explain, Prophet is built into Outlook, “thereby eliminating the need to manage multiple contact databases or toggle between separate applications.”
Back in 2004 Avidian was billing its “Prophet 2004” as “an Outlook add-on offering sales executives basic account and contact-management features.” Aimed at companies with fewer than 100 employees, Prophet 2004's key selling points were its Outlook integration and its price tag of $200 per user (marked down to $150 for a promo) for a “perpetual” license. It was positioned in the market against “other client-side applications such as Act and GoldMine,” and as being “less expensive than hosted CRM services from vendors such as Salesforce.com (News - Alert).”
Built on the .NET platform, Prophet works entirely inside Outlook and integrates with other critical business capabilities. This allows what company officials characterize as “management of contacts, companies, sales opportunities and all related communication and history inside the familiar Outlook interface.”
The Prophet Professional Server Edition and Prophet Enterprise Server Edition are available for sales teams of 5 or more, with prices starting at $299.95 per user for the Prophet Professional Server Edition.
David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims’ columnist page.
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