IBM yesterday sketched in a firmer definition of Corepoint, its approximately 700 employee-strong subsidiary, which was formed in August to target the customer relationship management market. The subsidiary will meld IBM’s services experience with a range of existing and new IBM software, including its middleware and computer telephony software. Corepoint is tying together products from three existing product areas of IBM: Software Artistry, Early Cloud and Computer Telephony and Voice Response, said Steve McCorkle, Corepoint’s CTO. IBM purchased Software Artistry in December last year to add consolidated service desk services, distributed across the network, to its Tivoli TME systems management software suite. Not only will IBM use Software Artistry’s products as one of the cornerstones of its new venture, it will also make Software Artistry’s former president and chief executive Scott Webber, CEO of Corepoint. Early Cloud, which IBM acquired a number of years ago, brings middleware and a workflow engine to the table, and will in part serve as the means to inject and draw information about customers into and from legacy systems. As for the computer telephony software, much of it will be existing IBM software re-badged for Corepoint, with DirectTalk becoming Corepoint Voice Response and Callpath becoming Corepoint Telephony. New products will include the Contact Center, for handling customer inquiries, McCorkle said. Corepoint, which aims to address the broad sweep of customer relationship management will need to add further modules, the first of which will come in the first half of next year in the shape field services applications, which are aimed at sales people working away from the office. If Corepoint takes off as IBM hopes – it is investing an undisclosed sum to ensure dynamic growth – then it will eat into the sales of existing front end application companies such as Siebel and Vantive. However, Corepoint chief technology officer, sees the company’s main competitors being the enterprise resource planning vendors, such as SAP AG, which are also muscling their way into the burgeoning market. Corepoint said it will receive sales back-up from IBM. Corepoint will also sign up value added resellers and systems integrators to distribute its products and services.
