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Siebel Systems ships new suite

The maker of front office software is rolling out Siebel 99, the next generation of its sales, marketing, and customer service management applications.

2 min read
Siebel Systems is starting the new year a bit early.

The maker of front office software is rolling out this week Siebel 99, the next generation of its sales, marketing, and customer service management applications.

"Siebel 99's Web-based architecture allows companies to further extend access to corporate data throughout the entire extraprise, to unite their third-party resellers, service providers, business partners, and customers into a single, common information system," said David Schmaier, Siebel's senior vice president of products.

Siebel Systems rebuilt its suite of applications from scratch using configurable business objects, or modifiable chunks of code that handle specific business functions, as the foundation of the product. The object design is meant to let users customize the product using a graphical tool set.

The new applications are accessible from a Web browser, a design that is meant to make it easier for remote or traveling sales people to access the software and client information. It is also meant to make it easier for companies to deploy the software by putting it on a central server then letting offices whether at the headquarters or regional offices, access the information across the Internet.

CompUSA is currently testing the software at its 1000-agent call center and is planning to roll it out to all of its call center and field sales force in the near future.

"Test results are very encouraging and we expect to achieve across-the-board productivity increases," said Honorio Padron, CompUSA's chief information officer.

Also new in the product are a presentation generator, expense report software, and a sales report generator for sales staff.

For the marketing department, Siebel 99 comes with a prebuilt data mart for market analysis, an online analytical processing (OLAP) engine for data analysis, and a campaign generator for identifying a market and then creating a target campaign with prospects and contact information attached.

In the customer service arena, the product comes with a mobile field service application, a customizable script for guiding users through customer service calls, an asset management tool to track customer configuration changes at customer sites, and an entitlement verification system to quickly identify what level of support a customer is entitled.

Also new are versions of the application package designed specifically for certain industries including insurance, finance, communications, pharmaceutical, and consumer goods.

Siebel 99 is to be generally released in December and pricing starts at $1,350 per user.