Sage teams up with Rackspace to deliver CRM to SMBs

Sage has teamed up with Rackspace to launch customer relationship management (CRM) as a service to small businesses in the UK.

The business software company has introduced a cloud version of SageCRM to be hosted on Rackspace's new hybrid hosting technology, RackConnect

Announcing the relationship, Lorcan Malone, general manager for SageCRM said the product had been designed to help businesses grow by not over-committing resources at an early stage.

Sage CRM Cloud will initially be available in two versions: Essentials, which offers basic CRM functionality and is charged from 20 per month and a Professionals edition, which offers a complete set of functionality, including sales and marketing support. This version is priced from 40 per month.

Features of SageCRM include full contact management and business analytics, smartphone functionality, security over customer data and flexible payment options. The product is also offered on a 30-day free trial basis.

In addition, Malone said that one of the key benefits was that, as opposed to some software vendors, cost of support was included in the price.

With the CRM SaaS space dominated by Salesforce, Sage will obviously have its work cut out to take on its giant competitor but Malone said the company was confident that it could find its niche.

"Salesforce generally aims at companies just above our target market, but it's certainly true that it's looking at the SMB space more," he said. "Our strength, however, is that we're focused exclusively on SMBs and we benefit [them through] our partner support."