Intuit[R] Eclipse[TM] and IBM announced a marketing and technology agreement that will help small and medium sized business customers manage business components, including order processing, inventory control, accounting, purchasing and customer service.

Intuit[R] Eclipse[TM], a provider of business management software solutions for wholesale distributors, and IBM announced a marketing and technology agreement that will help small and medium sized business customers manage business components, including order processing, inventory control, accounting, purchasing and customer service.

Intuit Eclipse's agreement with IBM, which covers the United States, Canada and Mexico, is among the first such deals under IBM's new ISV Advantage Initiative. The ISV Advantage Initiative is designed to provide select mid-market ISV business partners with an open infrastructure platform, as well as technical and marketing support.

"Tight integration between Intuit Eclipse's applications and IBM's software and hardware platforms provides the power and flexibility for wholesale distributors to automate their business processes, penetrate new markets and improve their ability to serve existing customers," said Mark Ouellette, vice president, SMB Software Sales, IBM.

As part of the agreement, Intuit Eclipse will provide its Distribution Management Solutions (DMS) application suite for IBM's WebSphere Application Server Express. The agreement expands on an existing commitment to IBM in which Intuit Eclipse is built upon the IBM Universe database. Intuit Eclipse will continue to deliver DMS solutions with IBM hardware and middleware. IBM will be promoting Intuit Eclipse's product as part of a leading e-business SMB Solution.