Front office software house Clarify Inc is expected to announce its first move into applications hosting today, through an agreement with new applications service provider Breakaway Solutions Inc. Aiming the service at mid-sized companies rather than the high-end enterprise customers it currently concentrates on, the deal is likely to be the first of a number of such arrangements. Customers will pay on a monthly basis, though Breakaway, currently preparing for its initial public offering and restricted in what it can say, wasn’t revealing prices yesterday.
The deal also includes a systems integration element, so that customers can have access to customized versions of the software through the hosting deal. Eventually, a template model will be put in place, but a services element is likely to remain important. Breakaway, which has offices in Boston, Massachusetts and San Mateo, California, changed its name from the Counsell Group at the end of last year, when founder Frank Selldorf handed over the running of the company to new CEO and president Gordon Brooks. Brooks left services company Cambridge Technology Partners Inc to take on the job. In June, Breakaway struck a deal with another customer relationship management firm, Firstwave Technologies Inc, for its Netgain web-based system.
Clarify will take a royalty from Breakaway for each license it takes out of the eFrontOffice software suite. The first stage of eFrontOffice, which web-enabled the software, is now shipping. Clarify says it offers a choice of browser interface or fatter clients for more comprehensive application set-ups, unlike Oracle Corp, which insists on just the browser for the client-end. Phase two of eFrontOffice, due in the fall, will add the self-sales component acquired last week from Newtonian Software Inc (CI No 3,728), along with a commissioning system OEMed from another third party, and enhancements to Clarify’s own Clear Sales application.
Yesterday, the company also announced a systems integration deal with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the largest of the consultancy firms it has not already signed up. It plans to finalize informal agreements with IBM Corp’s Global Services Division and a European deal with Cap Gemini over the next few weeks.
