Best Software To Hold Competition At Bay Part Two: Strategy

However, as to address its go-to-market strategy to entice early prospective customers and to keep infinitely content both its customers and partners, on October 1, Best Software announced its strategy to enhance customer interaction and partner programs across its diverse, ever-expanding portfolio of business-management solutions for small-to-mid-sized organizations, including ACT!, Abra, CPASoftware, FAS, MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500, MIP, Peachtree and SalesLogix, among others. Best's CEO Ron Verni addressed the company's evolving business plans at its first-ever media event bringing together key corporate strategists from across the company. Best Software, created through a series of both horizontal and vertical solutions acquisitions, announced several new programs designed to offer consistent support, and easy migration and integration among some of its widely used and recognized solutions.

Key themes of Best Software's strategy outline include the following:

* Keeping customers for life;

* Providing one face to all customers and partners;

* Espousing clear market and product strategy;

* Ensuring new customer acquisition;

* Consistently achieving positive results; and

* Continuing targeted company acquisitions

Best Software, which markets its products via retail outlets, a national reseller network and a direct telesales force, reportedly added 47,000 new customers during the first half of this fiscal 2002 year (Oct. 2001 - March 2002), bringing its total to over 1.7 million U.S. customers. Its top objective is to encourage customers to stay with the company for the life of their business and, in support of this objective, Verni noted that the company also increased support contract penetration to 17% of its installed base during this period, and also increased revenue per support contract by 10%.

Consequently, on December 3, Best Software 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% over the prior fiscal year. Operating income for fiscal year 2002 was $212 million, an increase of 12% over the prior year, and earnings per share increased 11% over the prior year to $0.11. Total revenue for The Sage Group's US businesses, for the year ended September 30, 2002,0 was $409 million, and operating income was $85 million, increases of 22% and 29%, respectively, over the same period of the prior year. According to Verni, continued double-digit growth in both revenue and operating income in the US was a result of the company's increasing focus on product cross-selling via its nationwide network of 6,600 business partners to its substantial installed base. In particular, the emphasis on customer up-selling was supported by the ongoing success of Best's effort to migrate additional Peachtree customers to its MAS 90 product.
To augment the success of its installed base support programs, Best Software also announced plans to create a new center to facilitate migrating customers within its diverse product portfolio as their businesses grow. For example, Peachtree customers migrating to MAS 90, reportedly contributed 31% of its new units in the first half of the year, up from 8% three years ago. With these new strategies in place and the creation of its new customer migration center, Best believes customers will have even greater incentives to stay with Best Software as their businesses expand, and the company fully expects to continue to acquire businesses and organizations that complement its strategy.

Reinforcing its "customer for life" commitment, Best Software's new migration center is designed to support customers as they consider new or different platforms for their businesses, and help them through the decision-making process and conversion decisions that face them. As a business grows, managing more employees, larger revenue bases and a growing business gets more complex. Best Software continues to see an increase in its customer demand for their business management solutions. As part of the announcement, customers can receive a 20% discount off the purchase price when moving from Peachtree to MAS90 or receive 0% financing for three years for product and services.

Best Software believes its portfolio of accounting to full-fledged ERP solutions from Peachtree to MAS 500 should offer customers an opportunity to stay with the single vendor as their businesses grow, as each year, Best Software reportedly continues to see an increase in its migration customers. In the first half of 2002, its Mid-Market Division reportedly witnessed 22 % of all new MAS 500 customers migrate from Peachtree. The company has also seen early migration success with its Nonprofit and Government Division, as 15% of new customers migrated from Peachtree to MIP. Finally, its CRM Division recorded that 10% of all new SalesLogix customers have prior ACT! experience.

The Best Software migration center is planned to open in early 2003, and it will be comprised of employees uniquely focused on helping customers migrate from one Best platform to another. Currently handled out of multiple different organizations with Best Software (i.e., Small Business Division featuring Peachtree and Timeslips product, and Specialty Products Division featuring FAS, Abra, Carpe Diem and TimeSheet Professional products , in addition to the above three) this centrally-located group will support Best customers as they consider new/different platforms for their business.
Furthermore on the same day, Best Software announced the formation of the Best Software Partner Advantage program, which should provide an array of benefits to Best's reselling business partners, including training, financing, guaranteed lead-generation and alliances with resellers carrying other Best Software products. Best Software has possibly the largest and most successful reseller channel in the industry, with 6,600 partners. Available in November, the new program could help Best Software partners compete even more effectively by offering a number of key benefits:

* Training in solution selling, lead generation, demo skills, partnering with non-reselling certified public accountants (CPAs), product implementation and other mission-critical skills.

* Guaranteed lead-generation programs which promise a guaranteed number of qualified leads to participants.

* Zero percent (0%) financing for three years for customers migrating between Best Software product platforms. Offered in conjunction with American Express since August, the program has already generated close to $1 million in approved transactions.

* Alliance programs that will help partners increase their business by working with Best Software partners who carry complementary Best Software products.