Siebel Systems Inc used the first day of the DCI Customer Relationship Management conference in Chicago yesterday to make a wide ranging series of announcements, including two partnerships – with Compaq Computer Corp and Sun Microsystems. The San Mateo, California-based supplier of enterprise relationship management software announced a new strategic initiative, called Siebel Everywhere, designed, it said, to aggressively extend the company’s Web-based business model and product line. Under the plan, the company said will give away free, single-user licenses of its existing Siebel Sales software product as well as partnering with Compaq to bundle the application with versions of the company’s desktop and notebook PCs. In addition, Compaq and Siebel intend to offer a new product called Siebel Sales for Workgroups, a fully optimized and pre-configured server to provide a complete, out-of-the-box upgrade from Siebel Sales. The single user version is available today on CD format or downloadable over the web and Siebel said it was in talks with the all the other major PC vendors with regard to setting up similar bundling partnerships. Also under the initiative, the company launched its Sales.com web site; a service geared exclusively towards sales personnel. As well as free versions of Siebel’s applications software and tools, the site also offers a special service, called active briefings, which enables companies to compare their results, figures and financial standing with those of their competitors. It also features direct access, for a fee, to Dunn & Bradstreet’s database containing information on over 50 million companies in the US and Europe. John Bartlett, Siebel’s senior director of product marketing, said Sales.com wasn’t just designed as an information source, it’s intended to enable salespeople to build and manage customer relationships remotely, while at the same time improving their skills, without having to go into the office. As such, it also includes special sales tools to track and manage opportunities, accounts, contacts, calendars and action items as well as details of training courses and seminars. Sales.com is available now to Siebel customers and will be generally available before the end of the first quarter. The company also announced it has made its software available on Sun’s Solaris operating system, as well as releasing Java-based client versions of its sales, marketing and customer service applications. Both solutions will be delivered in the second half of 1999.
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