Online crm program

Intuit is planning its first foray into the market for small-business customer information systems, putting the company in competition with Best Software, Microsoft and Salesforce.com. Intuit plans to announce this week a late-September release for QuickBooks Customer Manager, a software program for keeping track of customer service and sales activity. The Mountain View, Calif., company, which also makes TurboTax and Quicken personal finance programs, said the new desktop product will be available at Staples and OfficeMax stores, as well as other retail outlets, across the United States. Customer Manager is designed for small businesses that employ fewer than 20 people and will have a suggested retail price of $79.95 per user, Intuit said. The program can synchronize data among up to five users, but doesn't require a network or any servers to work. The initial target market for the product are the 2. ***

In its latest push to better serve the small-business market, IBM said today it has teamed with online applications firm Salesforce.com to help businesses move their operations to the Internet. As reported last week by CNET News.com, the partnership formed by the two companies will provide small businesses with the hardware, computer support and software for Web-based operations. Salesforce.com offers services that allow salespeople to track leads and account information online. Although the small-business market is growing steadily, computer systems makers have yet to make inroads in the sector, according to some analysts. ***

Salesforce.com, a new Internet start-up founded by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, today said it has named John Dillon its chief executive officer and that it has won $17 million in funding. Before joining the privately held San Francisco-based start-up, Dillon served as chief executive of software company Hyperion Solutions. The company said that earlier in his career Dillon also held sales and technical positions at database software giant Oracle and computer services firm EDS. Salesforce.com, founded in March, also received a total of $17 million in funding, part of which came from a group of investors that now sits on the company's board. Investors in the company include: Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison; CNET (publisher of News.com) chief executive Halsey Minor; Magdalena Yesil, a partner at U.S. ***