OpenWorld: Siebel On Demand to become 'social CRM'
Web 2.0 sensibility turns up in the darnedest places
November 13, 2007 (Computerworld) -- At its OpenWorld show this week, Oracle Corp. is expected to announce an upcoming version of its Siebel CRM On Demand service that will include social networking features reminiscent of consumer portals such as Facebook or MySpace.
The previewed features, according to Oracle, will help salespeople make their sales -- unlike the bulk of the features in CRM applications, which are oriented towards reporting and otherwise helping managers track salespeoples' progress.
Anthony Lye, Oracle CRM On Demand senior vice-president, previewed several of those analytical features at the Software and Information Industry Association's (SIIA) show in San Jose last week. One mashes up data about sales orders from internal systems with external information in order to help predict sales opportunities. Another enables the ability for salespeople to create and join groups, ala Facebook.
Another feature is a library of sales material that salespeople can quickly preview or edit via an interface that Jeff Kaplan, an analyst with ThinkStrategies Inc., said "borrows heavily from the look and feel of the iPod's interface."
Still another lets users integrate their LinkedIn contact list for access by other users, according to Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst with Wellesley, Mass.-based Nucleus Research.
More features will debut at OpenWorld, though Oracle has been mysterious as to exactly when it plans to officially unveil this pumped-up version of Siebel CRM On Demand, which it acquired in late 2005. Lye is not scheduled to give a keynote speech at OpenWorld.
Oracle goes big with SaaS targets
In the overall CRM space, Oracle claims Siebel, via its on-premise and on demand versions, to be the market leader, with 4.6 million users at 5,000 company customers.
Oracle released version 14 of Siebel CRM On Demand in late June.
In October, WebEx announced that its Connect platform would host Siebel CRM On Demand.