Improving the quality and scope of customer interactions and learning from those interactions are essential to improving customer relationships. In different ways, software developers ePeople Inc. and Kana Inc. are trying to help their customers better achieve those goals.

ePeople this week is rolling out Version 5.1 of its ePeople Teamwork software, a collaborative customer service application that can be accessed from within Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook e-mail client.

Meanwhile, Kana last week announced four vertical-market-specific customer service applications for the telecommunications and banking industries.

ePeople's and Kana's products are chiefly used to handle customer interactions while retaining information from those interactions to improve customer service.

Version 5.1 of ePeople Teamwork lets users remain in Outlook while doing a host of tasks, including interacting with customers or partners in work spaces, finding subject matter experts, and capturing and accessing knowledge from those interactions. Users can also link customer issues to accounts, manage tasks and projects, and document the resolution of customer service, according to officials in Mountain View, Calif.

Separately, Kana is targeting specific vertical markets with its new customer service offerings, according to Kana officials in Redwood City, Calif.

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