SmartCompany’s new product signals a major shift in the way hosted CRM is delivered to end users.
The product, called SmartCompany Office, is a Windows desktop application that communicates with SmartCompany’s existing hosted infrastructure via Web Services, while integrating seamlessly with local desktop applications such as Microsoft Office and Outlook.
“We’ve been trying to figure out how to meet our customers’ demands for interoperability and a better user experience without sacrificing the ease-of-access afforded by the Web,” said Joe Zuffoletto, CEO of SmartCompany. “When we finally hit upon the solution earlier this year and previewed it to some of our clients, we knew it was one of those ‘eureka!’ moments that would forever change the course of our company and possibly the entire industry.”
SmartCompany Office delivers rich functionality that is either too complex or difficult to deliver through the Web browser, while maintaining the same ease of connectivity and network performance afforded by the browser. “Our first major goal with this product,” said Gary Wells, Chief Technology Officer, “is to deliver a richer, more productive interface to our own data. So the first thing we’re delivering is a powerful analytics tool that allows users to download opportunities and orders and perform complex data analysis on the fly. For example, you can group opportunities by sales rep, location in the pipeline, product line, or any combination of these and other criteria, and instantly see group subtotals down to any number of levels. You can then expand the groups and drill down to their underlying data. And it’s all done with point-and-click and drag-and-drop. These capabilities are available in every module of our application, and our customers love it.”
The second goal is to provide a seamless connection between SmartCompany and the customer’s local data, including Outlook databases, Microsoft Office documents, and accounting packages. An excellent example is the calendar in SmartCompany Office. “It looks and acts like the calendar in Microsoft Outlook.” said Wells. “This means there’s no learning curve if you’re already an Outlook user, which most people are. But the difference is that any event you enter into our calendar propagates immediately to SmartCompany and Outlook, so your personal data is always in sync with your SmartCompany data. The same applies for contacts, tasks, and notes, and we can just as easily integrate with document templates in Word, Excel spreadsheets, and so on.”
SmartCompany Office will be offered as an add-on option to any SmartCompany subscription, and the existing browser-based product will continue to evolve alongside SmartCompany Office. “We see the browser-based application as a great solution for occasional users, road warriors, and those who want to check in while traveling or on vacation,” said Zuffoletto. “But we see managers and power users gravitating towards SmartCompany Office when they have some heavy lifting to do. Both products are accessing the same data, and information entered into one is immediately visible in the other. It’s similar in concept to using Microsoft’s Outlook Web Access while you’re on the road, but Outlook itself while you’re in the office.”
Pricing for SmartCompany Office has not been set. The preview edition is currently available to select customers, with general availability scheduled for November 1, 2004.
CRMNewz focuses on business software strategies that provide competitive advantage by improving business decision-making, enhancing business performance, and maximizing the lifetime value of customer relationships.
