3. InvisibleCRM

Founded: Early 2005

Location: Moscow and San Mateo, California

What does the company offer? Add-on products for Salesforce.com , Amdocs and Documentum (now part of EMC). Examples include SalesFolder, which maps Salesforce document repositories to local desktop folders to provide offline access, and automates sharing and delivery of documents. Another product, Outlook Integration for Amdocs CRM, synchronizes Outlook and Amdocs data and streamlines scheduling and communications with customers.

Why is it worth watching? The biggest challenge in deploying a CRM application is getting employees to use it, says Nucleus Research in a report on InvisibleCRM. "InvisibleCRM synchronizes Salesforce.com with Windows desktop applications to automatically update, store, and transfer customer information between the desktop and the CRM system," the firm writes."The result is increased user adoption of CRM, better ROI, and a happier sales force." Nucleus analyst Rebecca Wettemann says the company eliminates the question of user adoption because users never have to touch the CRM system.

How did the company get its start? The founders, who were managing software development companies, decided to make an easy-to-use CRM application after being faced with resistance from sales reps who hated the CRM software provided to them.

How did the company get its name? InvisibleCRM refers to the company's goal of making users forget they are working with a CRM application. "Our idea was to meld CRM functionality as deep in Windows and Outlook as possible, so people work with their daily tools, but in fact they are also working with CRM," CEO and co-founder Vlad Voskresensky writes in an e-mail.

CEO and background: Voskresensky co-founded Afortio , a software development company, and was its CEO.

Funding: US$1.5 million in venture capital from Martinson Trigon Venture Partners and ABRT Venture Fund .

Who's using the product? About 50 customers including Blue Cube Security and Fernbrook Services .