Sage Software launched SageCRM.com, a rebranded version of the Accpac accounting and sales software Sage bought in late 2003 from Computer Associates International Inc. The new SageCRM.com service takes the company into the hosted customer relationship management (CRM) market currently dominated by Salesforce.com Inc.

Sage is positioning Sage CRM (formerly Accpac) in the middle of that range, pitching it toward companies ready to move beyond contact management but not ready yet for the expense and complexity of a SalesLogix deployment. The software is available in a traditional on-premise version priced at $595 per user, or as a hosted service for $69 per user, per month.

Sage is the latest CRM vendor to jump into the hosted-service market in the wake of Salesforce.com Inc., which cannonballed into the market in 2001, ringing up sales of $176 million last year. Sage is still in good financial shape but, like many CRM vendors, it has struggled to grow.

Vendors know they ignore Salesforce.com at their own risk, so Sage is aggressively targeting Salesforce.com's base market of smaller, price-sensitive customers. SageCRM.com comes with a "rent-to-buy" option: Sage will apply up to half a year's worth of subscription fees toward the licensing price of its on-premise software, either Sage CRM or SalesLogix, for customers that choose to migrate from the hosted service.

Source: ComputerWorldPrashanth RaiTags: CRM, Software as a Service.