LAS VEGAS, October 27, 2008—Consona Corporation (Consona), a worldwide leader in providing customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and services for companies of all sizes, today announced at its annual user conference, Consona Connect 2008, that it will rebrand its suite of customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) products under the name Consona CRM.
“We want to make a statement to the marketplace about our vision to deliver a fully integrated suite of CRM solutions across service and support, sales and marketing functions,” said Tom Millay, general manager of Consona CRM. “And while we remain committed to supporting and enhancing each of our acquired solutions, there is no better way to emphasize integration than bringing them under the Consona name.”
In August 2006, Consona, then M2M Holdings Inc., purchased Onyx Software, a publicly traded company since 1994. In a strategic play, Consona purchased KNOVA Software in March 2007 to begin building the market’s first and most tightly integrated CRM and KM solution.
Coinciding with rebranding and integrating Onyx and KNOVA, Consona will unveil three central product lines as part of the Consona CRM suite, spanning sales, marketing and customer service and support, as well as a series of integrated bundles and companion products to meet both typical and unique customer needs. By combining product features and functions into logical groupings based on usage and user requirements, Consona CRM will offer both existing and future customers a great deal of flexibility and choice, whether they implement a solution from within a product line, add-on solution, or predefined bundle.
According to Millay, the strategy behind Consona’s new pricing and branding structure is twofold. “First, we want to align more closely with buyer behaviors,” he said. “Many companies are implementing their CRM solutions in pieces in order to alleviate specific departmental pains. We want to provide a flexible product offering to accommodate a more phased approach to managing the customer experience, while still providing the benefits of enterprise-wide integration as functionality or departments are added. Second, we want to be able to compete with today’s CRM point solutions in a way that allows the customer to grow and add features without having to manage multiple integrations and vendors.
As part of the new branding structure, Consona will release bundles of products to accommodate vertical (industry) or horizontal (methodology, business function) configurations. Today, Consona offers five bundles, including Consona Customer Management (representing the former Onyx solution), Consona Knowledge Management (representing the former KNOVA solution), Consona OneServe Citizen Management (a vertical industry solution for local governments in the UK), Consona Knowledge Driven Support (integrated case and knowledge management for service and support teams), and Consona Salesforce (sales force automation and opportunity management functionality for inside and field sales).
Tim Hines, vice president of product management for Consona CRM, said that Consona will look to add additional bundle configurations over time. “Because Consona CRM is built on a next generation technology platform and offers a uniquely flexible data model, it is ideal for both pre-built configurations and very custom implementations,” he said. “That’s the beauty of our new branding. We can more quickly develop new configurations for key functions, like contact centers, or industries, such as financial services, but still be able to work with companies who wish to implement a completely unique solution.”
According to Millay, Consona’s new branding also leaves room for the company to continue its aggressive acquisition strategy within the CRM software space. “We’ll continue to support and enhance our solution organically, however, we’re also very active in expanding the functionality available to our customers’ via M&A,” he said. “Whether we build it or buy it, the key will be ensuring integration with our growing product suite.”
About Consona Corporation and Consona CRM
Consona Corporation is a worldwide leader in customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and services for the enterprise. The Consona CRM suite offers companies with vital and multifaceted customer relationships, or companies offering complex or technical products/services, a wide range of fully integrated CRM and knowledge management (KM) solutions that span service and support, sales and marketing functions. Based on a highly scalable technology platform with built-in configuration and personalization tools, the Consona CRM suite allows customers to select products within or across product lines. With several pre-defined bundled solutions, customers can take advantage of cost effective, best-in-class solutions that span industry, departmental, business function and/or methodology-based needs. More than 1300 customers spanning over 50 industries worldwide are using Consona CRM solutions to manage process efficiencies, drive revenue, increase customer satisfaction, and enable unique and extraordinary customer experiences. For more information, visit www.consona.com/crm, e-mail [email protected], or call (888) 8 CONSONA.
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