Centerbase offers CRM for smaller businesses

IDG News Service - Centerbase Inc. has launched a version of its customer relationship management software for small and medium-size businesses, it announced on Tuesday.

Centerbase Pro 2006 includes software for contact management, calendaring, task management, sales automation, help desk and other functions. It was designed to be simple enough to install and use so it would appeal to businesses with small or nonexistent IT departments, the Dallas-based software vendor said.

The software is priced at $125 per named user for up to 15 users, or $295 per named user for larger businesses, Centerbase said on its Web site. It runs internally on a company's Windows XP, 2000 or 2003 Server systems and can be accessed via the Internet by remote staff.

Centerbase already offered an Enterprise edition of its CRM software, which comes with a copy of Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition database. Centerbase Pro 2006 comes with Microsoft's MSDE database, which supports a smaller number of users.

About one-fifth of all businesses with fewer than 250 employees are using CRM software, according to a recent study by AMR Research Inc. Most of them are interested primarily in boosting revenue rather than cutting costs, the company said.

Small businesses are great candidates for hosted services because hosted services keep upfront costs to a minimum, AMR said. Centerbase took a different view, reasoning that customers are uncomfortable with a hosted model and prefer to keep their data and applications in-house.

Centerbase's rivals include Microsoft, which on Tuesday launched an upgrade to its Microsoft Dynamics CRM software (see ""Microsoft ships long-delayed CRM update"). Pricing for the Small Business Edition of that product ranges from $440 to $499 per user and $528 to $599 per server.