SAP began shipping the SAP Internet Pricing and Configurator application, which companies can use to let customers, distributors, and salespeople calculate prices and configure features for products and services. It's one of the first significant CRM products from SAP, which indicated its plans to move into the front-office market more than a year ago.

Steve Bonadio, an analyst at Hurwitz Group, expects SAP to integrate CRM products with Web-portal applications from another new product line, called mySAP.com. "While SAP is late getting a comprehensive CRM package out the door, the Internet Pricing and Configurator fits nicely with mySAP. com," Bonadio says. SAP says it will deliver E-commerce CRM applications for mobile sales and service businesses later this year.

IBM is dissolving Corepoint eight months after its launch. CRM technology and about 700 employees will be rolled into IBM's software group, under John Swainson, general manager of application integration and middleware.

Some former Corepoint managers were offered positions in the software group but opted to leave IBM. Among them were CEO Scott Webber, chief financial officer Mike Robbins, and product group VP Scott McCorkle.

IBM said it made the move because it determined CRM is vital technology that should be integrated with its E-business products. Some analysts said the move could be a sign that IBM's attempt at CRM has faltered. "The signals have been that Corepoint was not working out the way they hoped," says Peggy Menconi, an analyst with AMR Research. For instance, she says other IBM divisions were entering partnerships with outside vendors instead of working closely with Corepoint, which was run as a separate unit.

But one customer sees the move as a plus. Says Shawn Sabine, director of product development for First Data Investor Services Group in Westboro, Mass., which uses Corepoint technology in its call center, "Now they have all of the core competencies in one place."