Raising the bar for hosted CRM.

Armonk, New York-based International Business Machines Corp. has launched IBM Application Hosting in partnership with Onyx Software Corp. IBM Application Hosting is a hosted CRM offering based on Onyx's Onyx Enterprise CRM suite and managed by IBM Global Services.IBM Application Hosting for Onyx is implemented within 30days and accessed through a Web browser, using a multitenantedapproach similar to hosted CRM services from Salesforce.com,UpShot Corp., Salesnet Inc. and NetLedger Inc. IBM also launched its service IBM Services Anywhere Select which enables medium-size business customers to have IBM manage the components of their infrastructure, including storage, application support and security, saving internal IT resources for other projects. Separately, San Francisco, California-based Salesforce.com announced in March 2003 that it supports deeper, bidirectional integration between its service and the Outlook mail client. Previously, Salesforce.com users could only sync their Outlook calendar and task lists with the Salesforce.com service.