Informix Corp stepped up the pace in the front end office application market yesterday with the announcement of a global alliance with Siebel Systems Inc to market and sell its leading customer relationship management software. The San Mateo, California database company said it will offer the software, Siebel 98, alongside its flagship relational database system, Dynamic Server. The tie up with Siebel, at a time when database vendors are tripping over themselves to broaden their traditional backoffice offerings, is very strategic for Informix. Last month, leading database vendor Oracle Corp unveiled the third version of its front office application suite. At the launch, the company made out an aggressive marketing and sales strategy which it hopes will make it the number two front office vendor, next to Siebel, by the end of the year. And the month before, SAP AG, the number one ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) vendor made a lot of noise about its forthcoming standalone applications. Under yesterday’s deal, Informix will offer its customers integration with Siebel’s family of sales enterprise, marketing enterprise, call center and service enterprise products. Additionally, both companies will market and sell each other’s products to existing and potential customers via a network of closely linked field sales organizations. Jim Gallagher, Informix’s director of ISV programs, stressed that the partnership wasn’t a licensing agreement and that any revenues would go direct to Siebel through the sales channel. He said that the two companies had made a significant investment to work together since the summer to ensure their products would integrate. He added that Informix would also offer the next version of the software, Siebel 99, when it becomes available next year. He criticized Oracle’s strategy of going out and out to compete with front office vendors, like Siebel, rather than working to ensure that its database product was compatible with their applications. Informix’s strategy, he added was exactly the opposite. He said its customers were calling out for Informix to integrate Dynamic Server with third party software to offer them the widest possible choice of solutions. Customers can begin integrated Siebel 98 applications with Informix Dynamic Server starting today, Gallagher said.
