That didn't take long. Fresh off pictures of exultant shoppers brandishing the first iPhones purchased comes the news that CompanionLink Software, a vendor of mobile synchronization products, has released CRM synchronization for the Apple iPhone (News - Alert).

The product will synchronize contacts and calendar from ACT! by Sage, GoldMine, Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise, Time & Chaos, Google (News - Alert) Apps, and Palm Desktop to the Apple iPhone.

CompanionLink sells to mobile professionals who "don't use Outlook as a primary customer relations tool," company officials say proudly. By extending iPhone synchronization to a dozen other platforms, CompanionLink is offering a product delivering two-way synchronization of all contacts and calendar events.

Users of industry standard CRM applications will have their alarms, phone look-ups, and travel directions fully available on the iPhone, company officials promise.

"The mapping, Web browsing and calendar capabilities of the iPhone make it extremely compelling for today's mobile professional," says Wayland Bruns, CEO of CompanionLink Software. "The iPhone is a leap in value over every prior handheld."

CompanionLink is available in two versions: Express and Professional. Both versions support iPhone synchronization and start at $49.95. The current implementation requires Microsoft (News - Alert) Outlook to be installed. A direct sync that works without Outlook is anticipated in the current quarter.

A free 14-day evaluation version of the software is available at www.companionlink.com/downloads.

Last month the Portland, Oregon-based firm released the Japanese version of their Google Calendar synchronization product, allowing users to synchronize their Google Calendar events and notes with Microsoft Outlook.

With the release of the Japanese version of the software, the company added to versions of its software available in English, German, French and Spanish.

The product gives users the flexibility to change information from within Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. Changes to data are automatically synchronized in both locations. The solution supports multiple and shared Google calendars as well.

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David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.