Thursday, January 08, 2004

Day three at MD&M West

Traffic is definitely lighter on the expo floor today. But one advantage, at least for me, is that vendors are willing to take the time to explain product details more thoroughly. So I took advantage of the occasion to take a closer look at one smaller CRM player, ADAPT Software.

ADAPT is one of those companies that I give credit to for clearly defining their market segment. They focus solely on providing CRM applications to mid-market manufacturing and distribution companies (under $500M). The company has been around since 1996, with operations just down the street in Irvine, CA. Functionality includes sales (contact and opportunity management, sales planning), marketing (campaign and event management), customer service and defect tracking, technical support knowledge base, and a Web portal for customer self-service. The product is written in Magic and runs over Microsoft platforms with a small client, client/server architecture.

ADAPT's marketing strategy is also clearly defined. They do no direct sales, but only sell through a reseller channel (40 resellers today). They also sell through other software companies (e.g. Syspro) that private label ADAPT's CRM solution with their own offerings. The strategy seems to be working: Adapt currently has 300 active customers.

ADAPT sells a minimum five user license for about $6,000, making it an affordable CRM solution for small companies. More information can be found on ADAPT's web site.

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