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To: Trader Dave who wrote (2405)	8/12/1998 9:03:00 AM
From: bob gauthier	Respond to of 3033

Old News? Any comments??? Bob Gauthier ______IBM To Enter Sales-Force Automation Market______ IBM yesterday made clear its intention to enter the increasingly crowded market for sales-force automation and customer-management software. IBM plans to create an independent software company that will compete directly with market leaders Aurum, Clarify, Siebel, and Vantive. IBM officials say the as-yet-unnamed company will offer products that address all aspects of front-office automation, including sales, marketing, customer service, and support. The company plans to create an integrated suite of applications based on its existing technology, such as customer-management applications IBM acquired when it bought Software Artistry late last year, call-center products acquired from Early, Cloud & Co., and applications using internally developed voice-response software. W. Scott Webber, former CEO of Software Artistry, will lead the new company. According to Gartner Group Inc., only about 20% of the U.S. market for customer-management software has been tapped, and there is no clear-cut leader. IBM has not disclosed a release date for the product, nor has it outlined plans for integrating all the pieces into a coherent suite. -- Tom Stein