Services causing DB Locks

We see that webMethods services are locking the database at the Table level. The entire table remains locked while the service runs which causes other services which want to access the table to hang.
The locking should be at the record level and not at the table level.
Is there a mechanism/ setting which can use to get around this problem ?
Any info would be very much appreciated.
Thanks
Ash Ghogale

IS version is 6.5 and DB is SQL Server 2000