The Vancouver-based company is releasing Maximizer Enterprise 9 months ahead of Microsoft CRM 3.0, which could give it a lift. But Peter Callahan, executive vice-presdient of sales isn’t worried about the U.S. giant.While acknowledging that Micro-soft wants to get as much market share as he can, he said that “we think (3.0) is engineered for larger companies than our space.”
“Based on reports I see, although it (Microsoft CRM) shipped to a lot of people I don’t hear a lot of success stories.
“We’re the ones with 7,000 customers.”
At the same time, however, Maximizer wants to stay close to Microsoft, because it’s one of the company’s gold partners.
Which could be the reason why Callahan said the biggest feature in Enterprise 9 is “we are leveraging Microsoft.” For example, users of the new version can synchronize their calendars to Outlook calendars and contacts through a Microsoft Exchange connection, even if the other person doesn’t have Maximizer.
Maximizer Enterprise is a suite which includes sales force automation, marketing management and customer service support applications for small and mid-size companies.
Other new features include an improved customization toolkit, extensions to enhance Maximizer’s connections to most accounting packages, the ability to synchronize with handheld devices and an easier way for users to create their own defined fields.
Enterprise 9’s reporting engine works with Crystal Reports XI.
Dashboards included
There are a number of pre-configured role-based information dashboards, which Callahan said “will give salesforce.com a run for its money.”
Finally, the Web-based version of the application now has the same look and feel as the Windows version.
“We believe, based on the market research we’ve done, Version 9 is going to be a stunning success,” said Callahan
Maximizer 9, a new version of the contact management application for up to 10 users usually sold in retail stores, will be released soon.
The company has two kinds of partners: Solution providers, who mainly sell Enterprise, and retail partners.
Callahan said there are 20 solution providers in Canada and 100 resellers.
The release of Enterprise 9 came a week after the company held a conference in Vancouver for some 40 solution providers and partners.
Part of the meeting was to brief them on the upcoming release and have them tested and certified for service on it. Callahan said the company wants to have VARs trained to support a release the day it goes out the door.
The other part of the meeting was to hear about the company’s health and strategy from chief financial officer John Caputo and chief technology officer Tom Bennett, who share the president’s office.
While the company posted a net loss in the third quarter of about $100,000, that was better than the $300,000 second quarter loss.
Callahan said the rising Canadian dollar has hurt Maximizer’s bottom line. In North America, he said, the company is “highly profitable.”
