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To: incomep who wrote (57)	7/16/1998 9:03:00 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Respond to of 9677

Inc, interesting article. Thanks for posting. Regarding Nat'l Semi, their's appears to be an internal use, homegrown solution only. I don't think most companies would want to go to the trouble. Nor would they want to have their salespeople take the time to put together Web pages with information relevant to a given sale, even if they had the skills to do it. Anyway, I doubt it's anything they could package and sell. As for Selectica, their "ACE" product appears to serve a more complicated purpose - walking salespeople and customers through the configuration of complex systems or products. There's a start-up in Atlanta that does something similar, BT Squared Technologies. They developed a system that has been used by companies such as Bell Helicopter to allow salespeople to show available options (rather than carrying fabric samples, paint chips, and specs on equipment options) and customize the product, keeping track of all changes and the associated costs, and even retrieves and assembles the necessary contracts, warranties, manuals, etc. for delivery to the customer. BUT, it is not a sales force automation tool like NetGain. (Complimentary, perhaps.) "ACE" sounds similarly different, to coin an oxymoron. Regards, Bob