Trilogy Makes Move Into The Midmarket

Trilogy Software Inc. is stepping up its efforts in the midmarket next week with a new opportunity-management product, a slimmed-down product suite, and alliances with 10 midtier enterprise resource planning vendors.

The company says it's making the move into the middle market because it has potential for high volume, especially as enterprise market growth tapers off. Analysts say that by teaming with the ERP vendors, Trilogy can open up indirect channels and head off SAP's moves into both the midmarket and the front office. "With SAP moving aggressively in this place, it leaves a lot of ERP vendors needing" a front-office solution, says Judy Andaloro of AMR Research Inc.

Trilogy will unveil a new product, Trilogy Opportunity Manager, which helps companies keep track of all contacts in the sales pipeline, including such information as customer data, calendaring, and what products have been sold and delivered. The product offers a platform for managing all the deals that a company is engaged in and provides a front end to all of Trilogy's other tools, says Naren Nath, VP of the new Trilogy Indirect division.

The company will also offer a suite of Trilogy's sales and configuration applications tailored for midmarket customers that aims to lower costs and simplify implementation. For example, templates will help customers set up their applications. "It's about as much out of the box as you can get with enterprise software," Nath says. "The midmarket doesn't have the luxury to spend millions of dollars in integration."

Trilogy will pair up with 10 vendors to sell its products. They include Friedman Corp., Glovia International, Computer Associates/MK Group, SSA, and American Software.

Trilogy Opportunity Manager will be available from the ERP trading partners Dec. 15.