Sage (SGE) and Salesforce.com (CRM) have forged a strategic partnership to deliver a new solution called Sage Life on the Salesforce1 platform. The companies said that the new offering will enable small companies to connect their customer, accounting, payroll and finance data into one system, accessible from any device, anywhere.

MSPmentor 501 research has revealed that 12 percent of the top 501 IT service providers use Salesforce.com to manage their businesses, and 8 percent use Sage. On average, MSPmentor 501 companies use three different tools that fall into the professional services automation (PSA) and IT business management category.

In its release announcing the new partnership this week, Sage said that the average small business uses between four and eight software systems to run the company.

Sage said that Sage Life is cloud-based and can be used from any device including smartphones and smart watches. Employees view data in real time. The system has a social networking core, enabling easier collaboration between colleagues, customers, partners and supplies, Sage said.

“Together with Salesforce, Sage is shaping the future of small business. Small business software no longer has to represent different systems or layers of complexity – it’ll be simple, collaborative, and real time,” said Stephen Kelly, CEO of Sage, in a prepared statement.