After months of negotiation the industry’s first designer collection software company, ICEware Corp has signed a deal to acquire Arctic Software, the industry’s first micro-enterprise software designed for the small agency. The acquisition of Arctic will take place in the fourth quarter of 2010. ICEware is the industry leader in custom software development and Arctic is focused on the Micro-Enterprise. Both solutions are targeted at the ARM industry. With the addition of Arctic’s offering to the ICEware suite of software and services, ICEware can now offer products that meet the needs of any agency. For the small start up with 3-5 collectors there is Arctic, for the business with 5-8 employees there is ICEware Liquid and for 10 or more users there is the original ICEware solution.
At the start of 2010 Arctic Software sought the advice of ICEware to create a low cost entry level collection system. ICEware licensed an SDK to the Arctic team to enable the development of a standalone collection system. Arctic partnered with ICEware’s IGS division for customer service, support and upgrades. What was developed was the industry’s first Micro-enterprise software targeted at the small start up agency. The software boasts a small monthly fee and no upfront cost or set up fees, there is no contract to sign and no obligation. Arctic software has all the bells and whistles that smaller agencies need to be up and running immediately. Arctic Software launched the industry’s first $24.99 hosted collection software system in June, the growth has been staggering and there is now a need for deeper customer support; enter ICEware. Arctic Collect went through months of development, focus group involvement and beta testing to bring the industry’s first Micro-enterprise solution for small to medium size businesses. Micro-enterprise means providing enterprise applications, feature rich systems, and always-available access for agencies that traditionally did not have access to this level of sophistication. Before Arctic, if an agency wanted a powerful system with all the bells and whistles, customization, and integration available to enterprise agencies, they required an almost unlimited budget, which is unrealistic for most companies.
With the help from ICEware’s experts, Arctic was able to bring enhanced features and state of the art technology to “the entrepreneur”. The Arctic software has video tutorials and even a youtube site to provide support and information around the clock. When asked about the addition of Arctic Collect to ICEware’s current offerings, Marc Campisi, COO of ICEware stated; “We have a triple play of services that will serve to help any agency start up or grow.”
We are looking forward to a smooth transition with this acquisition. ICEware will continue to use the established Arctic brand and Arctic customers will continue to receive great software and service from the new ICEware service center. Synergies as well as platform integrity make this the perfect match to meet the needs of any collection agency.