The great CRM Click War is back.

The good folks at Soffront ask “How many steps does it take to create an ad hoc report in your CRM software?”

They helpfully supply the answer: “Nine. That’s how many steps it takes to create an ad hoc report in Microsoft (News - Alert) Dynamics CRM.” And then they go screen by screen showing in detail that yes, by golly, it really does take nine steps to create an ad hoc report in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

“Is there such a thing as express Ad Hoc reporting?” they ask, and you knew they had an answer, that’s a rhetorical question if you’ve ever heard it: “There is with Soffront CRM software. Check out the amount of time and energy you can save.”

And then another screen by screen process of creating an ad hoc report in Soffront: “Step 1: Pick the report type. Step 2: Define the parameters. Step 3: Run the report for desired output.”

Reporting and analytics are obviously critical to any CRM software, company officials say, adding that “being able to complete these tasks quickly and easily is no less important -- there’s no reason to waste your time trying to access your data when you could be analyzing the data itself.”

True enough.

Last month TMC’s (News - Alert) Anshu Shrivastava reported that Soffront announced that Printec Group is using Soffront CRM software to improve reporting, forecasting, and tracking of business data.

Printec Group of Companies is a prominent provider of transaction automation in South East Europe. In 2008, the Group purchased Soffront CRM software to improve sales force automation and financial forecasting. It’s using Soffront CRM in its subsidiaries across 15 countries.

Currently, the software is being used by sales, marketing and finance to consolidate data from different countries, report on the company’s existing level of business. In addition, it’s enabling the company to forecast current and future sales opportunities in South East Europe.

Printec Group needed a forecasting and reporting tool that could give it timely, comprehensive, and consolidated information from all of our subsidiaries in South East Europe, said Gabriel Rusu, project manager for CRM implementation at Printec.