Sage is poised to launch an online customer relationship management (CRM) suite in the next few months to give firms more options for deploying its software.

However, the head of Sage's mid-market division said there was still little demand for hosted CRM software in the UK, as take-up is hampered by the unreliability and high cost of telecoms carriers.

The Accpac CRM system will be based on technology that Sage acquired when it bought the Canadian firm Accpac earlier this year to bolster its US presence.

David Karlin, managing director of the mid-market division, said the product would sit alongside the firm's on-premises CRM products, including Act and SalesLogix, and was likely to be priced on a per-user, per-month basis.

Karlin added that to avoid alienating existing users, Sage does not intend to build a common architecture for all its CRM products. "We will [achieve interoperability], but not in the short term," he said.

Karlin also suggested that online CRM has been over-hyped by the larger CRM vendors, many of whom have recently launched hosted options. "Hosting is just not on the main agenda for most of our customers, and the hosted/non-hosted debate is irrelevant for them," he said. "Firms are more concerned about getting the business processes right than saving money in back-room IT departments."

Karlin said Sage sees hosting more as a sales opportunity, allowing firms to try out its software. "If they are happy with what they see then they may take it on-site."

Karlin blamed concerns about telecoms for the low take-up of hosted systems. "I do not think telecoms carriers have been particularly cheap or reliable in the past and if you take the hosted route you are putting all your trust in their lines staying up," he said.

Asked why Sage was moving into the hosted arena, he said: "We are offering our customers the choice. We are not saying, go and host and stay hosted for ever. We are offering a choice between the two and the ability to switch between them."