ACCPAC launches ACCPAC Online

ACCPAC International, Inc, a division of Computer Associates' interBiz group has launched ACCPAC Online, the premier Application Service Provider (ASP) and e-business resource centre for medium-sized enterprises. ACCPAC Online provides hosting services for ACCPAC accounting and e-business solutions and Microsoft Office 2000. It also provides information and services designed specifically to help companies enter the world of e-business affordably and efficiently. ACCPAC Online is located at

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"While others have been busy talking about their future e-business solutions, we've been building ours," said David Hood, President and CEO, ACCPAC International. "Today we're delivering them. ACCPAC Online puts e-business within the reach of every business."

"Security and availability are of utmost importance to businesses considering application hosting and the move to e-business," Hood continued. "ACCPAC Online is built on Computer Associates' ASP and e-business infrastructure, including Unicenter TNG, the de facto standard for enterprise and e-business management worldwide. This infrastructure provides ACCPAC Online members with security and availability - which translate into higher efficiency and profitability."

Visitors accessing www.accpaconline.com are greeted by a console that provides access to hosted applications and e-business-enabling services and information designed to guide every business in its evolution to e-business. Users may leverage the ACCPAC Online E-Business Toolkit, exchange e-business information in the ACCPAC Online Community Centres, buy and sell business products and services in the ACCPAC Online Marketplace, and access business news and information in the ACCPAC Online business centre.

"Until now, only large enterprises with large budgets could afford to integrate their existing back office with solutions that enabled them to effectively buy and sell on the Web; SMEs were excluded from the e-commerce game," said Richard Villars, vice president of Internet and eCommerce Strategies at IDC. "Solutions like ACCPAC Online, delivered on an ASP-based infrastructure built by CA, will help change the landscape of e-business by levelling the playing field for small and mid-market enterprises."

"ACCPAC has leapfrogged the competition as a pioneer mid-market ERP vendor - delivering what every company needs from an ASP," said Dr. Katherine Jones, managing director, Aberdeen Group. "The combination of integrated accounting, e-business, and office productivity solutions, together with affordability and flexible deployment options, is the answer to company's e-business requirements."

The premier ASP and e-business resource centre, ACCPAC Online provides application hosting services, e-business-enabling educational content and services, user community centres, and portal services.

Application Service Provider

ACCPAC Online provides application hosting for ACCPAC Corporate Series and ACCPAC eAdvantage Suite e-business management solutions, and Microsoft Office applications. This powerful combination of solutions allows a business to rapidly deploy a complete and integrated accounting, e-business, and office productivity system, or to complement existing systems with the flexible deployment options.

ACCPAC Corporate Series is a management system providing a complete financial and operations accounting feature set, extensive customisation options, e-business integration, and powerful data analysis and reporting. The solution also provides multilingual and multicurrency support, including support for the euro with EMU accreditation from the Business and Accounting Software Developers Association (BASDA), an international standards body that establishes EMU specifications.

ACCPAC eAdvantage Suite is a set of solutions that enables SMEs to sell on the Web, buy on the Web, and empower employees on the Web. It includes:

• ACCPAC eTransact - a "business-to-everyone" (B2E) Web store and e-marketplace integration solution. eTransact will integrate with all of the ACCPAC business management solutions.

• ACCPAC eProcurement - Web-based purchasing solutions that enable SMEs to leverage cooperative buying power on the Web with complete back-office accounting and work flow integration. The first eProcurement solution is works.com for ACCPAC.

• ACCPAC iConnect - a secure Internet application server and a suite of browser-based applets that provide employee access to functions within ACCPAC Corporate Series, ACCPAC Small Business Series and ACCPAC Discovery Series.

Microsoft Office 2000 is Microsoft's flagship suite of productivity applications. It includes Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Excel 2000, Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, Microsoft Access 2000, Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000, Microsoft FrontPage 2000, Microsoft Outlook 2000, and Microsoft Publisher 2000 (please see related Microsoft Office 2000 press release for additional information).

ACCPAC Online enjoys the support of more than 4,000 resellers and consultants worldwide. The ACCPAC Online ASP Referral Partner Program enables ACCPAC business partners to sell the services of ACCPAC Online and participate in an annuity-based revenue stream without making the huge investments required to provide the world-class data centre services hosted users expect. In addition, the ACCPAC ASP Partner Program authorizes qualified ACCPAC business partners, as well as other ASPs, to host ACCPAC accounting and e-business management solutions (please see related ACCPAC ASP strategy press release for additional information).

"With ACCPAC Online, ACCPAC has delivered to its channel and to our mutual customers a powerful set of e-business solutions and services," said Len Wright, president of Plus Computer Solutions, a leading ACCPAC reseller. "The long-time proven industrial strength of ACCPAC business management solutions is now extended to the Web in a way that fully embraces the thousands of dedicated ACCPAC channel partners."

E-Business Enabler

ACCPAC Online provides companies with everything they need to evolve their businesses into e-businesses. Beyond comprehensive e-business software solutions, visitors have access to e-business educational content and services including the ACCPAC Online E-Business Toolkit, which provides:

• Domain name selection, registration, and parking - enabling users to quickly secure their presence on the Web.

• Online payment processing set-up - enabling the set-up of Internet-enabled merchant accounts and online credit card processing.

• E-business promotional assistance - including Web store and site creation, design and marketing assistance.

ACCPAC User Community and Portal

ACCPAC Online provides valuable portal services to every business user, as well as community centres for ACCPAC users and its channel partners. The portal services include user-customisable feeds for a wide variety of industry news sources, stock tracking, weather, travel, and other useful business information. Each visitor may personalize the console's "remote control" interface. These services are particularly useful to ACCPAC Online hosted services users, providing a single, comprehensive Web site that serves all their business needs.

ACCPAC Online community centres provide end users and channel partners with access to interactive solution forums, online technical support, and other useful tools and information to help them take best advantage of their ACCPAC software solutions. Users and partners of both ACCPAC hosted services and traditional ACCPAC boxed products benefit from the many resources designed to serve the ACCPAC community.

For more information, visit www.accpaconline.com.