Following this week’s announcement of a new high-profile management team, the newly-appointed president and COO of Siebel Systems Inc, Paul Wahl, told ComputerWire that the company is definitely not up for sale. He reiterated the company’s commitment to become the number one software vendor, regardless of competition from Oracle Corp and SAP AG.
Wahl, the former CEO of SAP America, said Oracle was at least a year behind Siebel with its front office suite, while SAP is still some eighteen months off. There’s a long distance between us and all the competitors. We’re not frightened of competition, we’re confident of our product, he said, people like Oracle and SAP are always making noises, but marketing material doesn’t translate into a deliverable solution. Wahl said that Siebel has succeeded in the front office space because it has chosen that as its core competence, whereas Oracle’s is databases, and SAP’s is ERP software. You need to be very focused, he said, otherwise can you really deliver, can you install and get it productive? Those are the real questions.
Wahl also denied recent rumors that Siebel was about to be purchased by IBM Corp, who noticeably lacks a front office solution and is keen to get a piece of the lucrative market. Our goal is to build Siebel into the fastest growing, most successful software company, There’s no indication that there’s anybody talking to us. We want to be independent, he said.
His comments come in the week that Siebel added four new positions to its management line-up including high-profile executives from both IBM and Oracle. Thomas Siebel, the company’s chairman and CEO will stay on in the same role, although the heads of sales, engineering, product marketing, customer service, and professional services will now report directly to Wahl. Wahl’s appointment is intended to give the CEO more time to focus on long-term growth of the company and product direction and development, Wahl said.
Wahl is the second SAP executive to jump ship and join Siebel since the beginning of the year. In March, we reported that Jeremy Coote, former president of SAP America had left SAP to join the front office vendor as VP, North American operations. But Wahl’s appointment comes as somewhat of a surprise, given that he only left SAP to join security start up TriStrata Security Inc last September. For his part, Wahl says he was happy at the start up but the position with Siebel was too good an opportunity to miss. I can see the potential in quarters and years to come, he said, I can see how big Siebel can be…and that’s what attracted me to join the company. I want to capitalize on that potential and turn it into revenues. And that’s certainly something Wahl has had plenty of experience doing. As CEO of SAP America from 1991 to 1998, Wahl helped boost revenues from $650m in 1995 to $2.2bn in 1998.
Siebel, which owns around 65% of the front office and customer relationship management market, pulled in revenues last year of around $391m, of which $43m was net profit. In its first quarter, it managed $134m in sales and $21.3m profits. Although Wahl wouldn’t speculate on future revenues, he said his immediate remit was to focus on rapid growth. He said he would work with the management team to understand where we are in the different areas, then focus on making sure that expansion is as flawless as it can be.
Also under yesterday’s reshuffle, Siebel announced the appointment of two executives from IBM Corp and one from database giant Oracle Corp. Thomas Hogan, former VP sales of IBM midrange systems joined Siebel as VP, international operations. Hogan had been with IBM for 17 years. His appointment is a new position at Siebel and he will be charged with expanding the company’s customer base throughout Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Canada. Siebel currently gets around 40% of its business outside the US, but the company is looking to up that figure, particularly in Europe where, a spokesperson said, it sees huge opportunity
for growth.
Also from IBM, this time from its business process management division, comes Karen Riley, former general manager of the division who joins Siebel as VP, global services. Riley was with IBM for 20 years where she built up considerable experience in the CRM and front office software space. An ideal catch for Siebel, the spokesperson said.
Finally, Siebel named Kirk Krappe, former VP of Oracle solutions marketing, as its VP of industry solutions marketing. The spokesperson said Krappe was chosen to build up Siebel’s vertical industry solutions. At Oracle, he was responsible for building the company’s vertical offerings from scratch to 28 products. Siebel currently offers eight vertical solutions, but the front office vendor wants to increase that number.
