January 26th, 2006: ExchangeWise today announced the release of its SQL Server-based Editions of MX-Contact, its highly successful Outlook-based CRM and Contact Management system.

3 new versions of MX-Contact are now available, namely the SOHO Standard, SOHO Advanced and Enterprise Editions. All 3 have the same Outlook front-end interface as the current Personal/Professional and Workgroup/Corporate Editions of MX-Contact, but store data in a SQL Server database rather than an Outlook Data File (Personal and Professional) or Exchange Server Public Folders (Workgroup and Corporate Editions).

"These editions represent what we classify as the best of all worlds for CRM" claims Brian Drury, Managing Director of ExchangeWise. "Utilising the Outlook interface means no new learning curve for the users already familiar with Outlook's functionality, and having a SQL Server backend database means greater robustness, scaleability and ease of integration for the IT professionals responsible for supporting the application", he went on to say.

While Outlook Data Files and Exchange Server Public Folders are adequate "databases" for low volumes of data (under 20,000 items in a folder), SQL Server is Microsoft's Enterprise-level database, which can scale to almost any practical volume that a customer's hardware can support. It is also a "true" database in that relationships between items are maintained by the database rather than by the client application, so that for example deleting an item in one folder will cause the "links" from items in other related folders to be deleted automatically. Because it is becoming the de facto database standard, it is much easier to integrate a SQL Server database with other applications running databases, like web servers, accounting/ERP systems, etc.

For more details on how the new SQL Server Editions differ from the current MX-Contact Editions, please download the following Information Sheet:

MX-Contact Information Sheet - SQL Server Editions

The Enterprise Edition will become the MX-Contact "flagship" version, and is suitable for any company with either a fair number of users (over 20), or significant volumes of items (over 25,000) in any MX-Contact Folder (Contacts, E-Mails, Journals, etc.). Even where volume of data is not an issue, it can be considered in any situation where integration with other systems is a factor, or where it is simply the case that SQL Server is the preferred platform for any database in the company.

However, the SOHO Editions also represent an extremely good option for a small business for the following reasons:

1. The SOHO Editions use the SQL Server 2005 Express database, which is Microsoft's free SQL version. The only limit is a 4 GByte database (which is fairly large for a small business), 1 GByte RAM and 1 CPU.
   
2. Exchange Server is not required, although can be used if Exchange is available.
   
3. SQL Server 2005 Express can be installed on a low-specification server or even a non-dedicated Windows XP machine.

For the latest pricing on these versions, please request a price list using the following link:

Request for MX-Contact Pricing

MX-Contact now boasts 7 different Editions in total, catering for a single user through to an Enterprise with thousands of users. The Personal Edition is free (download this here). For a comparison of the different Editions please see the MX-Contact Configuration page.