Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition--Touchtone Goes ASP with OS/400 CRM

Touchtone, one of the few vendors selling native OS/400 CRM software, is rolling out its new on-demand service, in which the company becomes an application service provider (ASP) and runs the Wintouch eCRM application on its own OS/400 servers, providing customers access over the Web. The Southern California company also announced Wintouch eCRM Version 6.0 last week, which has enhanced integration with IBM Lotus Notes, Web portals, and PDAs.

Wintouch eCRM is a series of integrated modules designed to basically help front-office workers in OS/400 shops to do their jobs better. The client/server application uses RPG on an OS/400 server and uses Java on the client, providing in-house workers, as well as road warriors sporting wireless modems, with access to a centralized database of contact information and tracking capabilities.

Touchtone says its application is suited for several areas of the front-office, including the customer service, sales, marketing, accounting (collections), and technical-support divisions of midmarket OS/400 shops. While its core role is managing and tracking contact and account information, it offers specific functionality in several areas beyond that, including lead generation, creating targeted marketing materials, tracking sales and marketing campaigns, generating reports and to-do lists, and calendar tracking, as well as providing quick access to many other bits of customer data held in an ERP system, such as the history of account problems or credit status.

The biggest Wintouch eCRM benefit is the native OS/400 aspect; it talks the same language as the tens of thousands of OS/400 ERP systems in use today, giving it a leg up on data integration and simplicity over Window-based CRM applications, like Siebel's. Wintouch eCRM has a special affinity for the J.D. Edwards address book but can also be hooked up to OS/400 ERP systems, including MAPICS, BPCS, and more. Another native OS/400 benefit is that the software gives users one-click access to the underlying green screen in the ERP application, giving customer service reps tremendous flexibility to get detailed data when a customer demands answers.

But Touchtone recognizes that not everybody wants to use and support the OS/400 server in the front office. And, believe it or not, some companies don't use the OS/400 server, period. For these customers, Touchtone developed its new Wintouch on Demand hosted offering. Instead of selling companies a license for the CRM software, companies periodically upload their customer data, in comma-separated value (CSV) format, to Touchtone's iSeries servers, and then access the Wintouch eCRM application via the Web.

This ASP offering holds several benefits to the user. First, the upfront costs are lower, as the user doesn't need an OS/400 server or the IT staff to manage the server, and they pay for the application on a month-to-month basis, instead of making a larger lump-sum payment. Additionally, the database doesn't even need to be of OS/400 origin, Touchtone says, which significantly broadens the company's potential market. Touchtone has OS/400 servers available at two locations.

In addition to Wintouch eCRM, Touchtone has developed a second application it will distribute via the ASP model. NiceFit is based on Wintouch eCRM and was designed specifically for the nonprofit sector. It has much of the screen and field customization already completed for this sector of the marketplace. Both Wintouch on Demand and NiceFit are available to users for $49.95 per user, per month. There is also a database-load fee associated with these ASP offerings, which varies according to the size of the database.

Touchtone also has announced the availability of the latest release of its CRM product, Wintouch eCRM 6.0. This new version features a number of new enhancements, including integration with IBM Lotus Notes. Wintouch users can, for instance, save incoming and outgoing Lotus Notes e-mails in the Wintouch DB2/400 database. And customers can view e-mail attachments, which are saved in the OS/400 Integrated File System (IFS), from the Wintouch Activity Log.

Wintouch eCRM 6.0 also has a new Web forms capability that lets administrators create secure Web forms, using a drag and drop user interface, and to serve them from OS/400's native Apache HTTP server. These interactive forms allow employees, customers, business partners, and others to submit information to the Wintouch database, which then optionally prompts Wintouch users for further action, Touchtone says. These new Web forms, which could be orders, expense reports, or other business documents, can also be accessed from PDAs.

The new version also has new customization options for Web portals developed from the Wintouch eCRM application. These portals can be given the same colors, logos, and look and feel as their regular Web site. A new data import wizard also makes its debut with Version 6.0, guiding users through the process of importing prospect lists (comma-, semicolon-, space-, or tab-delimited values) into the Wintouch database and mapping the data to the appropriate Wintouch fields. Direct integration with MapQuest in Version 6.0 also lets users click a button in the "accounts" screen and open a new Web browser window that displays a map and directions to their customer's place of business.

Several user-requested enhancements have been made in Version 6.0, including additional tools for customizing the look and size of Wintouch windows, as well as a new "time zone" function and searchable help files.

Wintouch eCRM 6.0 is available now. Licenses for the product (which comes with all of the modules) range from $700 to $1,500 per user, depending on the number of users. There is also a $4,995 fee for the Wintouch server component. For more information, go to www.wintouch.com.