Purchase builds Australian strength

By ADAM GIFFORD

Customer relationship management company Stayinfront has bought the CRM division of one of its main Australian implementation partners, Berger Software, for an undisclosed price.

Stayinfront chief technology officer Tony Bullen said Berger had a strong presence in the Australian pharmaceutical industry, with customers such as GlaxoSmithKline, Elanco Animal Health, Roche, Alphapharm and Hexal.

Pharmaceutical companies account for about two-thirds of Stayinfront's US$20 million worldwide business.

Stayinfront is a private company formed out of the merger of Auckland-based software developer The Great Elk and its New Jersey-based implementer Winsoft. Its main products are the Visual Elk and Pocket Elk CRM systems and the Panorama data analysis tool.

Bullen said the Berger acquisition tripled Stayinfront's headcount across the Tasman to about 30 people, making it the second largest CRM company behind Siebel.

It will also give the company more resources to deal with large clients in Asia. Stayinfront has just signed a multi-country deal with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca across Southeast Asia and is talking with two other large companies in the region.

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