Industry News

Best Software Customer Support Center Receives SCP Certification for Fifth Consecutive Year
Considered the Technology Industry's Benchmark for Quality, SCP Certification Represents the Height of Customer Service and Support

Irvine, Calif. - October 28, 2002 - Sage Software today announced that its Mid-Market Division has achieved certification for the fifth consecutive year under the Support Center Practices (SCP) Certification program. 
The division was certified after an extensive audit of its Customer Support Service (CSS) center in Irvine. SCP Certification quantifies the effectiveness of customer support based upon a stringent set of performance standards and represents best practices in the industry. SCP Certification represents one of the highest levels of recognition available for excellence in support center practices. 

Support Center Practices Certification, an internationally recognized program created by the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) and a consortium of leading technology companies, defines best practices for delivering world-class technology support. SCP Certification requires comprehensive on-site audits to confirm that companies meet the requirements of more than 100 business elements defined in the program. 

The Best Mid-Market Customer Service and Support (CSS) center in Irvine met the certification requirements in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and this year, making the company one of few to receive the distinction for five consecutive years. 

"This is a notable achievement," said Dennis Fukuyama, SCP program auditor, in his executive summary. "SCP certification has been established as the global standard for service quality and is being rapidly adopted by leading technology companies. Sage Software can be proud to be among the industry leaders in service excellence by attaining this mark of excellence." 

Companies seeking certification under the SCP program must undergo stringent onsite audits of their business practices. The program measures factors such as corporate commitment and strategic direction, customer satisfaction, performance metrics, research and development interface and other strategic areas of the support operation. 

Certified companies must continue to demonstrate their commitment to excellence and high performance standards through annual re-certification audits. 

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Sage Software’s SalesLogix Wins Seven Industry Awards in Fourth Quarter of 2002
Product features, partner programs, and customer success earn acclaim from industry experts and end users

Scottsdale, Ariz. - January 14, 2003 - Sage Software today announced that its leading small business and mid-market CRM solution, SalesLogix, was honored with seven industry awards during the past quarter. These awards recognized the market leadership of SalesLogix in a variety of categories including product functionality; end-user success and satisfaction; and breadth and success of a reseller channel to meet customer CRM requirements.

“The honors of the RealMarket Users’ Choice Gold Award and CRM Magazine’s Top Five Customer Installs for 2002 are a testament to the success of SalesLogix with our customers,” said Tim Fargo, SalesLogix general manager. ”These awards voted on by both industry experts and customers recognize our successful product, partner programs, and customers. Most importantly, they demonstrate our ability to meet the unique business requirements of small and mid-size organizations and clearly define SalesLogix as the market leader in our segment.”

RealMarket’s Users’ Choice Awards is the only award program in which CRM products are judged by the end-user. Gold Awards were issued for products or services that scored highest in their category, had widespread voting, and had at least three competitor products that also received broad support. These criteria ensure that Gold Award winners stand alone atop a competitive field.

In addition to customer awards, SalesLogix also won Editor’s Choice awards from both PC Magazine and CRN Magazine. And, in CRM Magazine's recent Mid-market CRM round-up, SalesLogix was recognized as one of the Top Five Mid-market Vendors and SalesLogix customer Avnet was selected as one of the Top Five Customer Installs for 2002. Avnet was the only customer of the five selected that integrated their front-office and back-office systems for a full view of their customer data.

“SalesLogix is really firing on all cylinders these days. The new version 6.0 product was a great introduction to the marketplace and to our customers,” said Sam Biardo, president of Technology Advisors, a SalesLogix business partner. “It speaks a lot to the strength of SalesLogix that the product was recognized not only by leading press and analyst organizations, but by the customers that are using SalesLogix every day.”
SalesLogix awards include:

• PC Magazine Editor’s Choice Award for Best SFA product
• CRN Editor’s Choice Award for Best SMB CRM product
• CRN Editor’s Choice Award for Best SMB CRM channel program
• CRM Magazine’s Top Five Mid-market CRM vendors
• CRM Magazine’s Top Five Customer Installs for Avnet
• RealMarket’s Users' Choice Award - Gold Winner for Mid-market CRM product
• Supply Chain Technology News for Best Front Office Solution

MAS 90/ MAS 200

MAS 90 and MAS 200 Promotions

Family Upgrade Program
20% Off or 0% Financing when you migrate to MAS 90 or MAS 200 from Peachtree, DacEasy or BusinessWorks
50% Off and 0% Financing for Peachtree 2000 Customers

Existing Customers
MAS 200 Upgrades- Receive a $100 User Discount for Add-on users
Gold Plan Members get a 15% discount on Add-on modules and additional users for MAS 90 or MAS 200
15% Off Business Alerts module
Purchase the RMA module and get a rebate of $125

Upcoming MAS 90 and MAS 200 Classes

All classes are held from 9am - 5pm, and cost $425 per person unless stated otherwise. Lunch is provided. They are held at the DSD Building in beautiful Mission Valley in San Diego.

To register, call Sandy McCauley at 619-683-9900 or e-mail SandyM@dsdinc.com 

Sage Software Reports Record Revenue and Profits for Fiscal Year 2002

Irvine, Calif. - December 3, 2002 - Sage Software, Inc., today announced that its UK-based parent company, the Sage Group plc, reported revenues of $815 million for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2002, an increase of 14 percent over the prior fiscal year. Operating Income for fiscal year 2002 was $212 million, an increase of 12 percent over the prior year, and earnings per share increased 11 percent over the prior year to $0.11.
Total revenue for The Sage Group’s US businesses for the year ended September 30, 2002, was $409 million, and operating income was $85 million, increases of 22 percent and 29 percent, respectively, over the same period of the prior year.

“These strong results for Sage worldwide have been largely driven by our ongoing focus on marketing our broad range of leading products and services to new and existing customers, along with our continuing ability to add value to acquisitions,” said Sage Chairman Michael Jackson. “Operating results for our US businesses were particularly encouraging, with continued double-digit growth in both revenue and operating income,” said Ron Verni, Sage Software president and CEO.

“Operating margins improved from 20 percent to 21 percent as a result of our increasing focus on product cross-selling via our nationwide network of 6,600 business partners to our substantial installed base of more than 1.7 million customers (excluding Interact). In particular, our emphasis on customer up-selling was supported by the ongoing success of our effort to migrate additional Peachtree customers to our MAS 90 product.”

All dollar amounts for The Sage Group plc were calculated at an exchange rate of 1.47642 for U.S. dollars per GBP for fiscal 2002.

DSD Releases MAS 90 and MAS 200 Multi-Currency 3.71

San Diego, Calif. - January 15, 2002 - After much hard programming and testing work, DSD is releasing the 3.71 versions of all Multi-Currency modules. Call your sales representative today or visit our website for more information.

CRM

What is CRM?

What does CRM stand for? Where did the term come from? What happened to Sales Force Automation or Contact Management? What would CRM do for my company? Will it make me more money? How much?

For the answers to these and other burning questions, please join us for an “Intro to CRM” seminar, presented FREE by DSD Business Systems.

This seminar will take place on Thursday, March 27, 2003 from 9 am to 11:30 am.

The seating is very limited, so please reserve your space today by contacting Sandy McCauley (SandyM@dsdinc.com or 619-683-9900) for more information or to reserve your space.

The Discontinuation of TeleMagic…

2003 is the FINAL year for TeleMagic. Sales of new licenses will stop at the end of 2003, and technical support from the manufacturer will stop at the end of 2003. No more service pack releases of TeleMagic are planned. (The latest release is version 5, service pack 4.)

DSD will continue to provide on-site support for TeleMagic installations, as we are the only authorized TeleMagic reseller in California. However, with the prospect of no more maintenance releases being created, users may run into compatibility issues with the next version of Windows after Windows XP. As such, TeleMagic users need to be planning on converting to a new product when TeleMagic is outgrown or becomes incompatible with your current network. DSD can help by showing the alternatives such as ACT! or SalesLogix, depending on your needs.

Please contact Stephanie Smith (StephanieS@dsdinc.com or 619-683-9900) for more information or to schedule a free assessment.

ACT Version 6 Released!

ACT! has recently release version 6 of their popular program. Included in this release are HTML-formatted e-mails, tight integration to Microsoft Outlook for e-mail and calendar entries, and an easier to use date field.

Users current on their maintenance with ACT! from Sage Software can upgrade for free by calling them. All others can upgrade for just $99 per user.

Contact Stephanie Smith (StephanieS@dsdinc.com or 619-683-9900) for more information.

SalesLogix on Sale!

SalesLogix offers a new entry-level package for those with 5 users or less. Smaller companies can now enjoy the powerful, award-winning, all-encompassing SalesLogix CRM package for less that $3000, not including tax or services.

This is the same software package that bigger companies use every day. Companies like LEGOLAND California, Chapin Medical Company, Questcor Pharmaceuticals, and Cor-O-Van Moving and Storage utilize SalesLogix because of how easy it is to use and the ability to track everything about their customers and prospects. Previously, only a big company could have a tool this comprehensive allowing a heads-up on the competition, create more sales, market more effectively, nurture the customer relationships with their firm and have a single source for holding all information about a customer or prospect. Now this power and flexibility is available to your company without the large cost!

Contact Nicole Stone (NicoleS@dsdinc.com or 619-683-9900) for more information or to see a demo of SalesLogix in action!

ACT! Helpful Hint
How to Set-up E-mail in ACT! 6.0

If Outlook is being used as the default e-mail client from within ACT! and messages are getting stuck in the outbox, these tips will help solve the problem: 

1. When sending an e-mail from ACT!, Outlook takes control of the e-mail. 
2. Be sure Outlook is open so the message will get sent. 
3. Always open ACT! before you open Outlook. 
4. The e-mail will remain in the Outbox until a Send/Receive function is performed in Outlook. 

To set-up an automatic Send/Receive function in Outlook 2002, please follow these steps: 

1. On the Tools menu, click Options. 
2. The Options dialog box appears. 
3. Click the Mail Setup tab, and then click Send/Receive. 
4. Select the Schedule an Automatic Send/Receive Every X Minutes check box. Specify the interval as needed. 
5. Click Close when finished. 
6. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.

TeleMagic Helpful Hint

Populating more than one field from a list box.

You probably know already that you can hit F2 (or right-click) on any field in TeleMagic and build a list box for that field. But did you know that the same list can populate two or more fields?

An example is to populate the City list box field so that it populates the City, State, and the Zip Code all at once. To do so…

1. Place the cursor in the City Field.
2. Press F2 on the keyboard to bring up the list box. (If there is no list box, it will prompt you as to whether you would like to create one or not.)
3. Add an entry to the list box…

San Diego;CA;92101

Note the semi-colons between the items. The semi-colons tell TeleMagic to “Tab” to the next field, and insert the contents “CA” into the state field, and then tab again to the zip code field, and populate 92101.

SalesLogix Helpful Hint

What are Opportunity records and how could they possibly help us?

1. The company (account) of the potential sale.
2. The expected decision date.
3. The potential amount of the sale (goods and services).
4. The chance of winning that potential sale.
5. The list of contacts for the account that is associated with the potential sale, including their role and influence.
6. The competition, and their strengths and weaknesses.

Once this is documented, potential sales can be marked as “Closed – Won” or “Closed – Lost” when a decision has been made, as well as tracking the reasons why the potential sale was won or lost.

1. The ratio of deals that have been won to the number of potential deals.
2. The “pipeline” timeframe for an average sale.
3. A forecast of what can be expected to close next week, month, etc.
4. A listing of all pending proposal. (Places focus on the follow-up of the “low-hanging fruits.”)
5. History of proposals made to a company in the past. 
6. With the proper accounting link, opportunities can easily be converted into sales order in the accounting system. 

For more information about using the Opportunity System in SalesLogix more effectively, please contact Mike Mahoney (MikeM@dsdinc.com or 619-683-9900). 

Microsoft

Tools to Help Migrate to Windows XP

The following link leads to resources to help your organization migrate to Windows XP

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