IBM also endorses and recommends CRM products from Siebel Systems Inc. and Clear Technologies Inc. to run on natively on its iSeries of servers. Siebel also focuses on other IBM eServer products.

Touchtone's Wintouch, which is cross-platform and client-independent, offers sales force automation, marketing automation, customer service and support tracking, partner/channel relationship management, and enterprise resource management.

The suite of applications is Java-based and can be accessed from a standard Web browser. The client is a Java applet that gives users a graphical user interface to access CRM functions as well as an interface to legacy applications via a terminal emulator.

In September IBM verified Wintouch eCRM as an iSeries ServerProven solution. Touchtone, the privately held Costa Mesa, Calf. -based company was formed more than a decade ago to develop client/server software for the IBM AS/400.