Best Software continues to move forward with strategic decisions that round out its suite of CRM offerings through actions such as the pending acquisition of ACCPAC International, Inc. from Computer Associates International, Inc., announced in December 20031. The addition of ACCPAC to the Best Software family of products will provide customers with a hosted CRM solution, another area of significant growth according to Gartner. ACT!, the best selling contact manager on the market, continues to add record numbers of customers. Today, the ACT! customer base has reached nearly 2 million registered users. Likewise, SalesLogix momentum continues with 5,300 current customers worldwide in small and medium-sized markets. "Best Software provides ideal solutions for the life of our customers' businesses, whether they are seeking a contact manager for their small business or a full CRM application in a desktop or hosted environment for their mid-sized company," said Best Software CEO Ron Verni. "Our strategy is to build customer-driven innovation into our solutions, which translates to technologies that provide powerful business solutions, key data integration and product migration upon growth."

Through the support of its parent company, The Sage Group plc, and synergies from recent corporate acquisitions, Best Software continues its commitment to the customer base with Best Software Migration Centers to help customers with their transitions from ACT! to SalesLogix as they grow into more sophisticated CRM tools. Integration features allow products within the Best Software family to work with each other as well as other offerings to ensure that data is seamlessly shared between customers' applications.

In addition to Gartner's recent assessment of the small business CRM market, other indicators point to Best Software as the top SMB CRM provider. SalesLogix received the highest customer satisfaction ranking for the second year in a row, outscoring Microsoft and Salesforce.com, in a recent study by HYM press and CRMGuru. SalesLogix experienced the most significant growth in customer satisfaction with over 7% increase, more than all of the vendors in the study. The research found that SalesLogix customers prefer the solution to the competition because it is easy to install, affordable, adaptable to their individual functional requirements and well supported.

  Best Software CRM Solutions

Best Software's product suite includes ACT! and SalesLogix, both targeted at small and medium-sized businesses. ACT! has been on the market for over 16 years and continues to be the best-selling contact manager available. This easy-to-use software tracks and manages customer and vendor relationships by placing valuable information in front of the user, when it is needed most. As a result, the customer can improve relationships and meet sales goals. ACT! is available for multiple platforms including Windows, Web and Palm OS. Additionally, users have the option to link up to their Palm or PocketPC devices so they can access their important customer data anywhere, anytime. The award-winning SalesLogix product is a CRM suite designed specifically for small and medium-sized business, with a history of being easy to use that stems from its ACT! heritage. SalesLogix delivers integrated Sales, Marketing and Customer Support automation solutions with low cost of ownership, rapid time to productivity and high return on investment. Flexible and easy to use, SalesLogix readily accommodates growth and changing business requirements.

  About Best Software

Best Software offers leading business management products and services that give nearly 1.8 million small and mid-sized customers in North America the insight for success throughout the life of their business. Its parent company, The Sage Group plc (London: SGE.L), supports over 3.6 million customers worldwide and has revenue of approximately $899.7 million. For more than 25 years, Best Software has delivered easy-to-use, scalable and customizable applications through its portfolio of leading brands, including Abra, ACT!, CPASoftware, FAS, MAS 90, MIP, Peachtree, Timberline and SalesLogix, among many others. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.bestsoftware.com/moreinfo or call (866) 308-BEST.

©Best Software, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective holders. Footnote 1: Best Software announced its intent to acquire ACCPAC International, Inc. from Computer Associates International, Inc., on December 23, 2003. The acquisition will close within 30 days.

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