Boston -- Even with an Oracle Corp. acquisition lurking in the not-too-distant future, Siebel Systems Inc. made several product announcements at its CustomerWorld event here today that represent an ongoing shift in strategy.
Known as a leading vendor of customer relationship management (CRM) software, Siebel increasingly is assuming the look of a business intelligence (BI) and middleware company, unveiling a new version of its Business Analytics software and disclosing details of its Customer Adaptive Architecture that, it said, will enable companies to operate as agile, responsive, and most-importantly, customer-focused enterprises.
Officials call Siebel Business Analytics 7.8 the most significant release to date as it incorporates BI analytics that provide real-time, role-based intelligence to every person in an organization. It includes a set of pre-built analytic applications tailored by industry and functional role -- be it sales, service, marketing, customer contact center, finance, supply chain, HR, executives or even manufacturing.
"There's a shift in the role BI is playing in an organization. It's moving from being done by a few to empowering many," said Larry Barbetta, Siebel's senior vice president and general manager of Siebel Business Analytics.
The new release includes a predictive analytical engine that integrates with multiple data sources including Siebel, Oracle/PeopleSoft and SAP. A new Real-time Decisions (RTD) product adds best-practices metrics and processes, role-specific dashboards and analytic agents and workflows.
Available now, Business Analytics 7.8 includes advanced reporting products with a server-based engine for high-volume reporting, formatting and distribution. The Business Analytics server includes multi-user administration as well as clustering and failover in Unix environments for reliable scalability.
It has native database drivers and database-specific SQL generation that takes advantage of inherent capabilities in IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and Teradata databases.
Careful not to abandon its CRM roots, Siebel also provided additional details on a new line of open, standards-based products that serve as the building blocks for companies to design customized CRM applications. In cooperation with BEA Systems, IBM and Microsoft, Siebel's "Project Nexus" is a SOA-based infrastructure for CRM that runs natively on both .Net and J2EE application server platforms.
According to industry analysts, even though Oracle will benefit from Siebel's CRM software, the Nexus middleware is the real reason Oracle wants the company. "Siebel has been focusing a lot of time on Web Service-enabling their current offering," said Ray Wang, senior analyst enterprise applications at Forrester Research Inc. (Cambridge, MA), in an interview with Managing Automation. "They're creating tools to make it easier for companies to make changes ... they are also talking about making analytics not only predictive but actionable."
Coupled with Siebel's SOA, Oracle will be able to more easily integrate Siebel's CRM solution with Oracle's CRM product, Forrester's Wang said, and to embed Siebel's BI logic within its Fusion Middleware, Oracle's set of SOA tools.
Moving forward, "Oracle will take more time to explain Fusion and the role our architecture will play," said Siebel CEO George Shaheen, during a press conference.
The Oracle acquisition is expected to be completed early next year, pending regulatory and shareholder approval. But Oracle executives have made public comments about Siebel's products serving as the CRM centerpiece.
"I applaud [Larry Ellison's] courage and willingness to do this transaction to get his hands on our technology," Shaheen said. In return, Siebel looks forward to getting access to Oracle's customer base, he added.
There didn't seem to be too much apprehension about the pending Oracle acquisition from attendees at Siebel's CustomerWorld -- probably because there's just not enough information to go on right now. In the meantime, customers are looking forward to taking advantage of the new BI and CRM solutions.
"The kind of technology Siebel is talking about today is right in the sweet spot," said Michael Parks, CIO of cellular network provider Virgin Mobile during a keynote address. "We will be aggressive in taking advantage of it."