Call Center Software Featured Article

Commence Software Rolls Out Mac Version of CRM Solution

By Brendan B. Read
Senior Contributing Editor

Apple’s (News - Alert) Mac is not only back but is emerging from the art rooms to the corporate cubes and C-suites: a far cry when it was left for dead in 1997 and from the early days of MAC-PC integration nine to 10 years before that, accomplished via clumsy filters.

Today’s Apple’s iPhones and iPads, coupled with a steady stream of compatibility software, are making the Mac into --- at last -- an increasingly popular business tool.

“The Mac is certainly becoming more and more popular among the small- to mid-size businesses we service,” said Larry Caretsky, president of Commence Corporation. “A large number of these companies now have a mixture of Macs and PCs, and need a product that supports both platforms.”

Commence, which provides CRM software, is enabling just that with the release of Commence CRM Version 5.1 for the Mac, an enhanced version of the company’s popular Web-based CRM software, Commence On-Demand.

Commence On-Demand consists of a comprehensive suite of business software applications for contact management, lead management, sales pipeline management, marketing and campaign management. The product also offers a help desk, project management and a document library application.

Commence On-Demand integrates with any Pop or IMap complaint e-mail server making the integration with e-mail quick and efficient. The product also supports integration with popular wireless devices.

Commence said it is one of the few CRM providers that supports the Apple Mac environment natively, which means there are is no plug-in software required to properly operate the CRM software on the Mac platform. Commence also supports the use of any browser for data access.

“Commence On-Demand, our Web-based CRM platform addresses this requirement with an affordable solution that does not require additional software to operate,” said Caretsky.

Earlier this year, Commence Lead Scorer, an automated business process that ranks and scores leads based on a set of pre-defined criteria, was released. The criteria consist of a series of customizable questions that are used to automatically provide a score for each lead, based on the responses entered into the system. With a standardized set of qualifiers established by sales management, the process is no longer dependent on the varying experience levels of sales representatives resulting in a high level of consistency.

“The amount of time sales teams are spending following up on poorly qualified opportunities may be costing more than most businesses might think,” Caretsky said. “With the addition of our Lead Scorer, companies will receive critical sales intelligence that can support measurable results.”