With the launch of the latest version of its on-demand CRM suite, OnDemand Release 6, Siebel has doubled the level of functionality, adding both horizontal and vertical market capabilities, and introducing more advanced analytics and pre-built workflows.
The release is backed up with a clear statement of intent to challenge Salesforce.com.
Salesforce.com and the other companies have run unimpeded in the market since it began. Siebel is entering in full force, beginning now, said Bruce Cleveland, senior VP and general manager of Siebel’s SMB division.
We did not have a sales organization until Q3, when we hired 70 people, we spent most of the past year building a competitive product specifically for SMB market and in Q4 we launched a channel program, he said. We have allocated a specific on demand quota on the 250 other sales people in Siebel and unleashed the power of all Siebel salesforce on it.
He said the company is catching up in terms of functionality and understanding of the hosted model. He said when Siebel started out in the hosted market a year ago it ranked itself as being six years behind Salesforce.com in terms of technology, but has pulled that back to 18 months.
While it has made progress on the technology front, its momentum in the sector remains an unknown because Siebel does not release sales or subscription figures. We do not differentiate how customers use our products, we are agnostic as to how customers use it, said Cleveland.
One of the original Siebel people, Cleveland left the company but returned recently to head up the newly formed SMB division and help move Siebel into the next and much-needed stage of development, as set out by CEO J Michael Lawrie. The SMB market and the hosted model are key imperatives for the company that has struggled over the last couple of years.
Siebel has two areas of advantage over Salesforce.com. The first is in-built analytics. If CRM is the nervous system, analytics is the brain, said Cleveland. The second is the increase in industry-specific functionality as this version adds editions for the financial services, high-tech, life sciences, and automotive sectors.
The schedule for the release of vertical editions has altered. The original plan was to release versions for insurance, high-tech, automotive, and communications and media in the summer of 2004, following up with financial services, life sciences, manufacturing, and consumer and retail versions in the autumn.
Cleveland said this was because he changed part of the overall strategy to reposition how the company would take the product to market. Whereas the original plan was to rely on IBM, which provides the infrastructure behind the on-demand service, the current strategy is to also sell direct and via the channel, hence the introduction of the new SMB division. In addition, some of Siebel’s larger on-demand customers requested additional horizontal capability so it added more generic functionality than originally planned.
The vertical market issue highlights one of the major differentiators between Siebel and Salesforce.com. The difference is with industry-specific capability a company can use the technology against the way they operate as a company, said Cleveland.
Where Salesforce.com provides a generic version of the product plus the sforce development platform so customers can build their own extensions and integrations, Siebel offers vertical versions so customers do not have to do their own development.
We do not outsource development to the customer, said Cleveland. It is ludicrous, customers should not have to develop [the application]. Six to 18 months additional work is required if you outsource development. We don’t believe in outsourcing development.
