we want to insert a record in a sql server table

the insertion is in a transaction

after the insert .the recordset is updated. the whole
table gets locked.
the transaction ends much later after some processing.
Other applications using the same table have to wait till
the transaction gets over.
is there some way to have just have a row level lock
instead of table level locking while
inserting.This would let other users open recordsets on
the table to read ,
and update.