[September 15, 2006]

Sage Turns CRM Mobile With Acquisition Of Corum

By Tracey E. Schelmetic

Editorial Director,
Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine

Customer relationship management has helped many companies over the years streamline their customer relationships, their customer lifetime management, their call centers, their sales departments and their operations, but effecting good CRM was generally something that could happen only on company premises.

But nowadays, customer relationships are not always initiated, fostered, nurtured and grown on the company's premises, particularly if you operate a very round-the-clock business, have global presence or you offer a very high-level product or service. It has become increasingly necessary to be able to take the CRM off the premises, which gave rise to a few new terms: mobile CRM or m-commerce being the two most popular.

Today, Sage Software, the North American subsidiary of The Sage Group plc, announced that it acquired the Corum Mobile Division of Corum Corporation, a privately-held software consulting and development company based in Concord, Ontario, Canada. Corum specializes in mobile customer relationship management technology and had been a partner of Sage Software's — Corum Corporation has been developing add-on solutions for Sage CRM SalesLogix since the product was first launched in April 1997.

The acquisition, which was completed through Sage Software’s Canadian subsidiary, Sage Software Canada, Ltd., is expected to solidify Sage Software’s current and planned use of Corum’s mobile CRM technology, which, based on the two organization's previous relationships, is already fully integrated with and available for Sage CRM SalesLogix. Eventually, the mobile access technology will be made available for all Sage CRM Solutions customers around the world, including millions of Sage CRM, SageCRM.com and ACT! by Sage clients. The Corum Mobile Platform provides the infrastructure and functionality companies require to be able to design, build, deploy and manage scalable mobile applications that include mobile sales and field service automation.

“The Corum acquisition strengthens our CRM strategy because it allows Sage to broaden its CRM mobility solutions with a unified technology,” said Dave Batt, senior vice president and general manager of Global CRM for the Sage Group plc. “Sage CRM SalesLogix clients are already benefiting from Corum mobile access technology through a previously existing partnership. Recent research confirms mobile CRM technology is becoming increasingly important to our customers, and this acquisition strongly supports our desire to further address that need on a global basis, across our entire Sage CRM Solutions portfolio.”

The Corum Mobile Platform supports BlackBerry (News - Alert), Microsoft (News - Alert) Windows Mobile and Palm hand-held devices using the Windows Mobile operating system. The platform was created to provide users with secure, "always on" access to information within their existing enterprise software. Combining the Corum mobile platform with the Sage CRM SalesLogix product provides users with more access options to their data wherever they are and whenever they need it — via the office, the web, wireless, dial-up or cradle synchronization.

Said Leslie Ament, Aberdeen Group practice leader and director for Customer Intelligence Research, “The increasing demands and pressures of selling within a global environment require that sales professionals have mobile access to real-time customer data.” Ament continues, “Our research demonstrates that top performing organizations provide sales professionals with access to vital customer information such as: key accounts, order status, and inventory availability at the point of customer interaction as a competitive edge. Annual benefits measured by these best-in-class performers include: revenue growth, increased sales productivity, and enhanced customer loyalty and retention rates.”

Ronn Duby, Aberdeen Group research analyst and co-author of the report adds, “47 percent of all organizations polled plan on expanding their usage of mobile CRM technology within the next six months.”

For more information, visit www.sagesoftware.com.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]

Discussions: