Aurum Prepares Latest Version Of Sales Software

Company vows to retain multivendor integration

By Tom Stein

urum Software Inc. this week will unveil the latest version of its sales force automation software, Aurum Customer Enterprise 7.0. Aurum will also launch its Enterprise Integration Server 1.0, a product intended to reduce integration costs between the Aurum software and several leading enterprise resource planning systems.

That multivendor integration is key as Aurum defends its plans to remain independent from its corporate parent, Baan Co. in Menlo Park, Calif. Baan purchased Aurum earlier this year with the apparent intention of rolli ng Aurum's front-end customer software into its own back-end ERP suite. That no longer seems to be the case. "We are staying independent and have no plans embed our software into Baan," says Susan Foley, a product manager at Aurum, in Santa Clara, Calif. "We need to remain focused on the whole market and capitalize on customers who use SAP and Oracle."

Fujitsu Network Communications, a customer of both Aurum and SAP, applauds that strategy. "The integration is making our sales people more intelligent," says Lewis Vetter, a senior manager at Fujitsu, in Richardson, Texas. For example, says Vetter, with customer information flowing out of SAP and into Aurum, Fujitsu's salespeople know the status of orders and when they will ship. Also, they learn of customers' problems early and can take a proactive role in resolving those issues. About 135 Fujitsu sales executives and systems engineers use the Aurum software.

Customer Enterprise 7.0 will include such features as the Aurum WorkBench, a set of graphical tools that can be used to customize the applications and make them easier to install. A nonprogrammer, for instance, should be able to quickly and easily change the look and feel of the user interface and modify the software to meet the particular needs of the business. Another enhancement is the addition of a global forecasting module, which should allow sales information from business units worldwide to be consolidated on a central system.

"The internationalization of the product is key," says Luann Morin, a project manager at Welch Allyn, a medical diagnostics manufacturer in Skaneateles Falls, N.Y. "We have operations in Singapore and Hong Kong, but right now we can't handle all these international leads." Welch Allyn is implementing an earlier version of the Aurum software and plans to migrate to version 7.0 late next year.

Aurum will also begin shipping software called Interactive Selling Solution 1.0, which includes a product configurator, an electronic marketing encyclopedia, a proposal g enerator, and new Internet functionality.

Aurum Customer Enterprise 7.0 will be priced at an average of $3,000 per client and $35,000 per server. The Interactive Selling Solution will run about $3,000 to $4,500 per user. The Enterprise Integration Server will be priced at $50,000.

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