The San Mateo, California-based CRM provider has opened an office in Moscow that will serve as the base for planned activities in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS,) which includes Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Siebel has had a presence in the region since 2002, working though local partners and has 30 customers, but plans a major push in 2005. It believes that economic conditions are maturing sufficiently to stimulate demand for customer facing systems because the growing competitive market means that for the first time organizations are having to compete for customers.
Planned activities include the launch of Siebel Systems’ Alliance Program that will drive partner recruitment and certification plus the Siebel University training program. Siebel hopes to have 50 fully trained and certified CRM consultants in partner organizations during 2005.
The company will also provide localized and translated versions of Siebel 7.7, Siebel Professional Edition and Siebel CRM OnDemand by the end of 2005.
The financial services, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods verticals will be key target markets.
