Web Service Fills CRM GapWeb Service Fills CRM Gap

Business-process-automation vendor Nsite Inc.'s new Web service links its quote-to-cash business-process framework with Web-based customer-relationship-management products from Salesforce.com Inc. and Siebel Systems Inc.

The Web service is available with Nsite's latest Web-based process-automation offering, Nsite 4.5. Companies that integrate their quote-to- cash processes with their CRM systems can let customers and partners offer input into the quote process without being licensed CRM users. The technology also creates links needed to automatically update data in the CRM system during the quote-to-cash process, letting CRM users track activity that previously would have been handled using fax machines, telephone calls, and E-mailed spreadsheets.

Nsite's new capabilities are an important development in a CRM market that has largely overlooked processes that occur outside of CRM systems but are tied to sales and customer service, says Beagle Research Group analyst Denis Pombriant. "We're going to graduate from the talk of data integration to the concept of process integration, which is where we need to be," he says.

Nsite's quote-to-cash Web-services integration tool is $3,000. Its on-demand process-automation service runs $20 a month per user.