Aplicor has unveiled Cloud Suite 7.0, a beta version of an integrated CRM and ERP offering.
Development of the new product, which uses Microsoft Silverlight technology to power its interactive features, was based in part on feedback from the Aplicor EAC collaborative community. The end result is a wholesale rip-and-replace of all the business applications contained in the suite.
Not that the company has foresworn its earlier roots, Scott Creighton, CEO, told CRM Buyer. “We have had a strong reputation with on-demand CRM, and strong sales, service and marketing automation functionality. In particular, we have been known for our workflow engine.”
Shifting to the cloud, though, required an overhaul in order to incorporate more social and multimedia features such as Web conferencing, Creighton said.
A New UI
The new app’s best feature may be its TUX (Transformation User Experience) module — the company’s new UI.
“They have done a super job building a configurable UI,” Denis Pombriant, principal with Beagle Research, told CRM Buyer.
“Almost any user can set up the screens and windows,” he said. “Once that is done, the streamlined flow shaves some time and provides efficiency — and, most importantly, improves the user experience of people who might be in the system many hours in the day.
Aplicor wanted to pay particular attention to the UI, which has been neglected by other vendors, Creighton said. “The UIs we see on the market are still Web-based, data-oriented programs designed around tabs and clicks.”
It’s not that vendors haven’t been trying, Pombriant said. “For a long time, companies have tried to shift UIs to lightweight or zero weight browser interfaces. But many companies, when they made that translation, did a literal one of modifiying the client server to go to a lightweight browser environment.”
The result, he said, is that there are multiple vendors out there with still pedestrian UIs.
The application’s work spaces is the biggest change ushered in by TUX, Creighton said. “A user can have multiple work spaces up and running at the same time.”
Even better, that same user can multitask within those multiple work spaces, he added.
Shifting to the Cloud
Putting the app entirely in the cloud allowed Aplicor to make this jump, Creighton said.
“It gives us low-cost scalability and an innovative environment,” he explained. “It really opens the door for a core business suite of expanding functionality.”
For example, the company has also included new functional areas of warehousing, inventory and billing with Cloud Suite 7.0, he added.
Pricing for the app is US$59 a month per user.
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