CRM News Feed

Siebel Systems shareholders on Tuesday approved Oracle’s $5.85 billion takeover of its one-time rival, giving the business software maker a stronger foothold as it challenges industry leader SAP of Germany.

By Laurie Sullivan 1 February 2006 14:11 AEST Storage Oracle said Tuesday it closed on the acquisition of Siebel Systems.

By Laurie Sullivan 1 February 2006 14:11 AEST Storage Oracle said Tuesday it closed on the acquisition of Siebel Systems.

Siebel Shareholders Approve the Oracle Takeover Customers must wait–now that the deal is complete–for their applications to continue fusing.

Siebel shareholders approve takeover by Oracle Associated Press NEW YORK – Oracle Corp. on Tuesday completed its $5.85 billion takeover of rival business software maker Siebel Systems Inc.,

It’s official: Oracle confirmed that it completed the acquisition of Siebel Systems late in the day Jan. 31 after shareholders voted overwhelmingly to accept the $5.85 billion deal.

Today there was a new application posted on the
AppExchange for Sales Quotes with Product Line Items. This free App built by two
salesforce.com sales engineer is really pretty impressive.

It allows you to quickly
create quotes that have multiple product line items and relate them to a
single opportunity. There is also a simple approval process so that managers can
review quotes before they are presented to customers.

If you’ve been looking for a quoting tool, take a test drive and see how it works.

Oracle’s US$5.85 billion acquisition of Siebel is expected to be finalized on Tuesday, after a scheduled vote by Siebel shareholders to approve the transaction, which was first announced in September. The wait has given Siebel users a chance to contemplate what the future may bring under Oracle parentage. Oracle has gone to great lengths to persuade Siebel users that the change will benefit them, echoing its reassurances to PeopleSoft and JD Edwards customers following the acquisition of those two companies under less-than-ideal circumstances.

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Managed care is facing a fundamental shift in the way it handles member relations. Historically, payors invested little in developing solid relationships with individuals. This was a logical arrangement as employers selected and paid plans, so sales, service and marketing resources were dedicated to keeping employers happy. What about the individual member? Payor communication to members was limited to mandated communications and customer service resources to answer in-bound coverage and claim questions.

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Wondering where to find the nearest publicly available WiFi Internet access? Our global directory of 87,000 locations in 26 countries is a terrific tool for mobile computer users.

CRM is morphing into something that it wasn’t just a few years ago: a strategy built around the interactions and relationship the customer has with you, writes Paul Greenberg.

Turns out, observes Dick Lee, we couldn’t change much about our relationships with customers without changing front office and back office alike.

Every manager understands that having a single integrated view of the customer across the enterprise is a laudable goal, but, according to guru Michael Lowenstein, few companies have actually achieved it.

Over the
past couple of days I’ve been spending a good bit of time building out some new custom
tabs and custom objects, and I figured there’s got to be a faster way to bounce
between a record and the customize screen. 

The
solution that I came up with was to create a very simple web link which directs
you to the corresponding page in setup. This cut my clicks from four to just
one. Now that might seem like a lot but it really adds up. It’s also nice not to have to think about where you have to navigate. Rather than Setup, Build, Custom Object, Select Custom Object… it’s just Customize.   

If you have a fairly large monitor I also suggest launching the setup page inside
the Salesforce window with the sidebar. This might seem awkward at first it
makes it very easy to get back to the record you were customizing, saving you
yet another click.

Dell has indicated it will continue to expand its ties in the Indian outsourcing market, building on the contact center and R&D operations it already has established. Its most recent initiative? Plans to establish a customer contact facility in Gurgaon to complement its existing operations in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mohali. The 1000-seat Gurgaon center will start operating out of temporary headquarters sometime this year, and will move to a custom-built facility when it is completed.

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Wondering where to find the nearest publicly available WiFi Internet access? Our global directory of 87,000 locations in 26 countries is a terrific tool for mobile computer users.

Customer data integration (CDI) hubs continue to become a strategic driver for organizations who need to gain unified views of their customers across their sales and distribution channels for multiple product lines. However, while CDI initiatives have become one of the top five priorities for most Fortune 500 chief information officers, these projects continue to be risky ventures — and many of them fail during the implementation stage. One of the main reasons for failure is a lack of appreciation for all the factors that affect the scalability of a customer master data hub.

Free WiFi Hotspot Locator from TechNewsWorld
Wondering where to find the nearest publicly available WiFi Internet access? Our global directory of 87,000 locations in 26 countries is a terrific tool for mobile computer users.

No longer do hotel guests have to wait at emergency-care facilities or hope lodgings have a capable physician on call. Hotel house calls are increasing as a growing number of networks provide guests with all-hours access to board-certified physicians and specialists. EastCoast Medical Network, founded a quarter-century ago by former emergency-room nurse Susan Gentry, is a pioneer hotel house-call service.

Free WiFi Hotspot Locator from TechNewsWorld
Wondering where to find the nearest publicly available WiFi Internet access? Our global directory of 87,000 locations in 26 countries is a terrific tool for mobile computer users.

Market research firm Stratascope has accused Oracle of misrepresenting its data in a marketing campaign. Oracle issued a statement last week claiming: “Research shows Oracle retail customers are 49.7 percent more profitable and 61.5 percent more capital efficient than peers.” The vendor based its findings on data provided by Stratascope. Stratascope is a research firm that focuses on financial and operational benchmarks.

Free WiFi Hotspot Locator from TechNewsWorld
Wondering where to find the nearest publicly available WiFi Internet access? Our global directory of 87,000 locations in 26 countries is a terrific tool for mobile computer users.

Siebel, it is clear, has been on a tear to close out what is likely to be its last quarter as an independent company as strongly as possible. Announcing robust fourth-quarter revenues, CEO George T. Shaheen credited “the market opportunity in customer facing solutions and business analytics, the improvements we have made to address this market, and customer confidence in the future of Siebel customer solutions and analytics following the proposed Oracle transaction.”

Free WiFi Hotspot Locator from TechNewsWorld
Wondering where to find the nearest publicly available WiFi Internet access? Our global directory of 87,000 locations in 26 countries is a terrific tool for mobile computer users.

The mantra of selling solutions has taken enterprise software by storm and nowhere is this more prevalent than CRM. Honestly, it seems like the more challenging and difficult it is to sell into specific sectors of CRM, the more “solution-selling” is being invoked. This newfound religion is truly transforming some companies away from being purely product-centric to being problem-centered on their customers’ broken business processes first. The most positive aspect of solution selling’s prevalence among the best-of-breed CRM community is that it is starting to make a difference.

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Wondering where to find the nearest publicly available WiFi Internet access? Our global directory of 87,000 locations in 26 countries is a terrific tool for mobile computer users.

Over the
past couple of months there has been a significant amount of hype about the AppExchange,
so this week I figured I’d find out for myself just how it worked.

In a
trial account I created nine image fields on a stand alone custom tab. The thought
was that if I could package it up as a component on the AppExchange,
administrators could install it in their account in a matter of minutes and see
how this exciting new feature works.  

The
process of creating the package was incredibly easy. It was no time before I
had a link for my AppExchange package that I could readily share with friends
and coworkers. While publishing my app I also kicked off the process for
creating a read only demo account to show off my creation. This also proved
very straightforward. I did have to login with my admin credentials to add demo
data into the account. It’s important to note that neither the AppExchange
package nor the test drive account carry over your data, so none of the information
in your account will be compromised. When I had the test drive set up the way I
wanted it, I was able to add my read only login credentials to my AppExchange
page turning the test drive button for grey to red.

Now I
could have stopped there but I wanted to make my app available for the general

population and have it listed on the AppExchange. This process took a little
bit longer because it had to go through a formal review process to certify the
integrity of the app. I was really impressed with how thorough they were. I got
an email back saying that one of my image URL’s wouldn’t work across all
accounts and I’d have to update it. We got that squared away and as of this
afternoon, my App is now live on the AppExchange.

All told
the process from conception to public distribution took less than 48 hours
which is pretty amazing. To set expectations, I would imagine that more complex
apps would take a little longer.  

Having tried
this process out end to end it got me thinking about the implications of the
AppExchange.

First, I
want to encourage salesforce.com employees and customers to share their best
practices, components, and custom applications on the AppExchange. There are
lots and lots of great ideas about how to do things, but if we can package them
up we will dramatically increase the success of the community. In the coming
months I’d love to see people share custom links, formula fields, scontrols, and
their favorite custom apps.

Second, I
think this platform is a boom for entrepreneurs and partners who want to align themselves
with the salesforce.com community. Today there are 18,700 companies who can
install your application into their business web. My suggestion would be to
test the waters with a small fee application. This will help you understand the
publishing process and allow you to see what the uptake is. Also if you lead with a good free
product, users will want to see what else you’ve published. The best example of
a company who’s successfully led with this approach is Dreamfactory.

I hope
what I’ve written here comes across as objective and helpful. I’d also hope
that people jump in and comment on their experience with AppExchange.