Nortel purchase of Clarify to link voice, Net channels.(Company Business and Marketing)

CUSTOMER relationship management (CRM) gained a voice of endorsement last week with Nortel Networks' purchase of Clarify.

The merging of Clarify's electronic-business front-office applications with Nortel's communications, networking, and IP knowledge could begin to help customers bridge their telephony-, Web-, and e-mail-based support and sales systems, analysts said.

With the $2.1 billion deal, Nortel plans to offer software that will help businesses build a single view of a customer's experience across sales, marketing, and support,

using data from a variety of sources, including telephones, faxes, and the Web, Nortel officials said.

"Going forward, there will be blended or …