siebelobserver

Sun Acquires SeeBeyond

Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) has agreed to acquire SeeBeyond (Nasdaq: SBYN). Sun is a Global Strategic partner and SeeBeyond is a software partner of Siebel Systems. Under the terms of the agreement SeeBeyond stockholders will receive $4.25 in cash for each share they own. The total value of the deal, including the assumption of employee stock options, is $387 million. That price represents a little over 2.3 times trailing 12 month revenues.

Sun made the acquisition of SeeBeyond, an enterprise integration platform, because it believes the acquisition will create will be the industry's most complete offering for the development, deployment and management of enterprise applications.

"This acquisition strengthens our software portfolio and opens new growth and partnering opportunities worldwide," said Scott McNealy, Sun's chairman and chief executive officer. "Our recent acquisition activity reinforces our strategy to be a consolidator of innovations in the IT industry."

Sun continues to integrate more services into its software portfolio. The Solaris Operating System, which ships with all Sun software suites, is the foundation of this integrated set of services - called the Java Enterprise System. The Java Enterprise System includes: Sun Java System Application Platform Suite, Sun Java System Communication Suite, Sun Java System Identity Management Suite, Sun Java System Availability Suite and Sun Java System Web Infrastructure Suite. With SeeBeyond, Sun will extend the Java Enterprise System platform with a sixth suite, the Sun Java System Integration Suite.

Completion of the transaction is expected to occur in early Fall 2005.

Empirix Wins Award for Siebel Project

Empirix has won a 2005 CRM Excellence Award from Customer Interaction Solutions magazine. The award is for Empirix's Hammer Service Assurance for Siebel Empirix in a project where a brokerage firm was able to accelerate its Siebel upgrade from two months to one day.

Once a year, the CRM Excellence awards are presented to companies that have distinguished themselves in the market. Awards are based on hard data - numbers demonstrating the improvements that the winner's product has made in one of its client's businesses.

The client featured in Empirix's award application was a brokerage firm that planned to upgrade its Siebel business applications and more tightly integrate them with contact-center telephony applications through CTI. Pre-deployment testing of this multi-vendor integration with Empirix helped to ensure that the upgraded system would be stable and scaleable, and that performance would be at least as good if not better than the brokerage firm's previous version. Testing also helped ensure that no functionality was lost during the transition. As a result, the firm was able to greatly accelerate its upgrade: instead of implementing in phases over two months, as they'd originally planned, they were able to make the switchover in just one day.

"The case study Empirix provided to our judges was quite compelling, and demonstrated to us that thorough pre-deployment testing can have a dramatic impact on the success of a major CRM rollout," said Rich Tehrani, President of TMC and Publisher of Customer Interaction Solutions.

Hammer Service Assurance for Siebel leverages Empirix's Hammer transaction-engine technology to drive production-level caller and agent traffic against applications and networks. Simultaneously, it measures how all Contact Center applications (including CRM, CTI, and Telephony) and infrastructure components react, collecting end-user focused metrics including time-to-answer, queue times, call variable delivery and screen-pop success rates. The data helps organizations tune their CRM-enabled contact center environments .

"We're very pleased to have earned this award," said Dan Potter, Vice President of Marketing for Empirix.

Greg Maffei Joins Oracle

Gregory B. Maffei has joined Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL) as the company's President and will also assume the role of Chief Financial Officer in July. Maffei was most recently Chairman and CEO of 360networks Corporation, a broadband provider serving the rural Western United States. He led the successful restructuring of the telecommunications company, which is now debt-free and free-cash-flow generating.

Mr. Maffei served as Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft Corporation from July 1997 to January 2000 where he also oversaw its $35 billion cash and strategic investment portfolio. During his CFO tenure, the company's market cap increased four-fold to nearly $600 billion and the company won two CFO Magazine Excellence Awards. Mr. Maffei joined Microsoft in 1993 and held a number of positions there, including Vice President of Corporate Development, Treasurer, and Director, Business Development & Investments. From 1999 to February 2002, Mr. Maffei also served as Chairman of Expedia, Inc., the Internet travel service, which Microsoft took public in November 1999.

Mr. Maffei, 45, has an MBA degree from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and an AB degree from Dartmouth College. He serves as a director of Electronic Arts Inc. and Starbucks Corporation.

In addition to his responsibilities as CFO, Mr. Maffei will have responsibility for Oracle's legal department, human resources, manufacturing and distribution, and global real estate.

Deltek Names Former Peoplesoft Co-President Kevin T. Parker As New CEO

Deltek Systems named Kevin T. Parker as the company’s new CEO. Parker’s appointment brings to Deltek a new level of expertise that will accelerate the company’s future growth and success in the ERP marketplace. Ken deLaski, Deltek’s co-founder and CEO since 1996, will remain Deltek’s Chairman and will play an active role on Deltek’s Board of Directors.

“Deltek’s recognized industry-leading capabilities, customer-focused culture and project-based technology are the key strengths that have enabled the company’s remarkable performance throughout the past 20 years, including 23 percent growth in software sales last year alone,” Parker said. “I look forward to leveraging these significant strengths and building on Deltek’s position as the leading provider of project-based ERP software.”

Parker was appointed Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of PeopleSoft in 2000. Beginning in 2004, he operated as both Co-President and CFO of PeopleSoft until the company’s acquisition by Oracle later that year. During his tenure, he led the efforts to dramatically increase PeopleSoft’s operating margin and was actively involved in all facets of the business, including directing all shareholder communication and activity during the 18-month Oracle hostile tender offer. The architect and driving force behind PeopleSoft’s innovative Customer Assurance Plan (CAP), Parker also orchestrated PeopleSoft’s strategic acquisition of J.D. Edwards in 2003, which added 7,000 new customers and 6,000 new employees, making PeopleSoft the world’s second-largest enterprise software company.

Prior to joining PeopleSoft, Parker held senior executive positions with Aspect Communications, leading provider of contact center solutions and services that enable businesses to manage and optimize customer communications, and Fujitsu Computer Products of America, a leading provider of data storage and imaging solutions for the global marketplace.

“We feel extremely fortunate to attract an executive with Kevin’s experience and abilities to Deltek,” deLaski said. “Most importantly, Kevin’s business philosophies — high levels of customer service, technology leadership and employee teamwork — are very consistent with Deltek’s core values. I look forward to working closely with Kevin in the coming months to insure a smooth leadership transition, as well as continuing my role as Deltek’s Chairman.”

Kevin Parker’s appointment follows the April 19th majority investment made in Deltek by New Mountain Capital Partners II, L.C., a development that reflects and reinforces Deltek’s long-term commitment to growth. Already a recognized ERP leader among project-based businesses, Deltek looks to strengthen its position in its target vertical and SMB markets.

With more than 8,000 customers, Herndon, VA-based Deltek is the leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for project-based businesses and professional services firms. Founded in 1983, Deltek enables companies to maximize profitability and productivity, integrating all aspects of their businesses. Deltek focuses on the architecture/engineering/construction, IT/systems integration, professional services and government contracting markets. Its clients include Bechtel, CACI, HOK and Verizon. Analyst firm Technology Evaluation Centers declares Deltek “... the ERP leader for professional services industries and other companies focused on project-related work.”

Deltek Names Former Peoplesoft Co-President Kevin T. Parker As New CEO

Deltek Systems, Inc. today named Kevin T. Parker as the company’s new CEO. Ken deLaski, Deltek’s co-founder and CEO since 1996, will remain Deltek’s Chairman.

“I look forward to working closely with Kevin in the coming months to insure a smooth leadership transition,” said deLaski.

Parker was appointed Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of PeopleSoft in 2000. Beginning in 2004, he operated as both Co-President and CFO of PeopleSoft until the company’s acquisition by Oracle later that year. During his tenure, he led the efforts to dramatically increase PeopleSoft’s operating margin and was actively involved in all facets of the business, including directing all shareholder communication and activity during the 18-month Oracle hostile tender offer. The architect and driving force behind PeopleSoft’s innovative Customer Assurance Plan (CAP), Parker also orchestrated PeopleSoft’s strategic acquisition of J.D. Edwards in 2003, which added 7,000 new customers and 6,000 new employees, making PeopleSoft the world’s second-largest enterprise software company.

Prior to joining PeopleSoft, Parker held senior executive positions with Aspect Communications, leading provider of contact center solutions and services that enable businesses to manage and optimize customer communications, and Fujitsu Computer Products of America, a leading provider of data storage and imaging solutions for the global marketplace.

Kevin Parker’s appointment follows the April 19th majority investment made in Deltek by New Mountain Capital Partners II.

Founded in 1983, Deltek focuses on the architecture/engineering/construction, IT/systems integration, professional services and government contracting markets. Its clients include Bechtel, CACI, HOK and Verizon.

A Letter from Bruce Cleveland

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As many of you know, last week we announced the next version of our hosted CRM offering, Siebel CRM OnDemand Release 8.  This marked the fifth upgrade to Siebel CRM OnDemand in the past 12 months. The result of this ongoing innovation and dedication to success is a win rate of more than 56% in head-to-head deals against Salesforce.com.

One of the primary reasons Siebel has been able to deliver innovative technology so rapidly is that we invested approximately $299 million in R&D last year -- 22% of our total revenues.  During the same period, Salesforce.com invested around $9.8 million -- only 6% of their total revenues.

You've also probably seen the many new CRM OnDemand customers Siebel Systems has announced over the past couple of months. They chose Siebel CRM OnDemand for a variety of reasons, but they all have one thing in common -- they chose to buy a CRM solution rather than a CRM software development toolkit. They have told us that they want the onus of development to rest on their CRM provider, not on their shoulders -- while Siebel makes heavy investments in R&D, our primary hosted CRM competitor has outsourced its R&D to its customers and partners so they can invest in more important areas such as PR and advertising.

Analysts including the Gartner Group are cautioning customers that complex Salesforce.com deployments can be costly (see http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=127182).  Here is what our customers are saying in their own words:

"We wanted a single view of the customer across multiple touch points. With its ease of use, the Siebel CRM OnDemand Life Sciences edition gave us out-of-the-box support for the complex relationships between doctors, hospitals, practices, clinicians and insurance companies that is simply not available with other hosted solutions or would have required costly customization and time to address through workarounds. We chose Siebel Systems because of its superior reputation, rapid deployment capabilities, limited upfront capital investment and overall reliability."  -- Scott Coleridge, Executive Vice President of Sales, FEI Women's Health

"As the premier data center provider for managed dedicated server hosting in the Rocky Mountains, we are looking to expand beyond our local region.

This kind of growth could not be handled effectively without the comprehensive customer relationship management capabilities that Siebel CRM OnDemand provided. Salesforce.com didn't offer us the real-time analytics capabilities that have given us 24/7 visibility across our entire systems. With Siebel CRM OnDemand we can tightly manage all areas of our company, regardless of location or time of day, something that is essential to our competitive value proposition of providing superior application support."

-- Daniel Milburn, Director, Sales and Operations, Consonus

Best regards,
Bruce

Bruce Cleveland
SVP and GM, OnDemand and SMB
Siebel Systems
www.crmondemand.com

Editors Note: It is nice to know that Bruce considers me a friend. In the past no one did more to help and hurt this publication in Siebel than he did.

Chinese Government to Promote Chinese Software Industry

At the Ninth China International Software Exposition, Vice Premier Huang Ju said China should seize opportunity to further develop software industry by speeding up the policy of the State Council to expand the industry. He also said China should protect software intellectual property and create a better environment for foreign investment.

China now has 176 state major software enterprises, 11 state software bases, and 6 state software bases specializing in software for export. In 2004, the Chinese software industry was estmated by the government to be about $22 billion US dollars). Software exports are estimated to be $2.8 billion.

The International Software Exposition is an annual event for software industry, and the ninth session was held in Beijing from June 14 to 16. The exposition was sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry, the State Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Jim Steele Appointed President of Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) has promoted Jim Steele to be president of the company. In his new role Steele will oversees global sales, services, support, and marketing. He will be charged with advancing the company's winning software-as-a-service strategy and growing its enterprise customer base.

Steele joined salesforce.com in October 2002 from Ariba Corporation, where he served as executive vice president of worldwide sales. He was responsible for global customer satisfaction and advocacy, expansion of direct and indirect sales channels worldwide and increased penetration in vertical markets.

Steele brings nearly 25 years of technology sales and executive management experience to his new role at salesforce.com. Previously, he served in a variety of globally focused executive roles at International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation. Most recently, Steele was vice president of the North America western region, where he was responsible for over $9 billion in hardware, software, and services sales of a 10,000 employee organization. His prior positions at IBM include more than three years in Tokyo as vice president of systems sales as well as general manager of telecommunications in Asia Pacific where he led IBM to record revenue and market share growth.

Mr. Steele holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University.

Siebel CRM OnDemand Now At Release 8

Siebel Systems (NASDAQ: SEBL) has launched Release 8 of Siebel CRM OnDemand, the company's hosted offering. Release 8 marks the fifth major release of the product in the last 12 month.

"Siebel CRM OnDemand is evolving at a rapid pace," said Mary Wardley, Vice President of CRM Software Research at IDC.

New features include:

• Group calendaring and delegated task management
• Contact networking
• Advanced marketing segmentation wizard

"The Segmentation Wizard in Siebel CRM OnDemand Release 8 is right up our alley," said Larry Dinkler, Director of Customer Reporting, Integrated DisAbility Resources (IDR), a group disability risk and claim management service organization. "It is very easy to use and allows us to target and focus our direct marketing and email campaigns for optimal sales impact."

For more information, visit www.crmondemand.com.

New Technology - DocuSign

Most business transactions are conducted quickly using the Internet, e-mail or cell phones – that is until it’s time to finalize the deal. Then everything slows to a crawl as documents are printed and mailed back and forth while the paper trail is completed. Now, however, companies are overcoming this barrier by moving to DocuSign’s online signing service that allows even complex contracts to be signed by multiple parties over a secure Web site.

Among the customers using DocuSign are Chela Education Financing, Worldspan and Malik Rashid, a RE/MAX real estate broker in the Washington, D.C. area. By using DocuSign, they eliminate the expense and delays of delivering printed documents to customers, while also improving accuracy and security. This method of securing signatures translates into more closed deals and more revenue.

Federal legislation to enable electronic signatures has been in place for more than four years. But early attempts at implementing electronic signatures required expensive, complex technology and only worked with a few applications. Because of the complexity of the early solutions adoption was limited.

At Chela Education Financing, a leading education finance provider, transactions such as student loan consolidation can now be completed faster and easier electronically at www.chelastudentloans.org from start to finish. When customers select the ESIGN option rather than “Mail” or “Print & Sign”, loan applications can be finalized and delivered into processing in as little as five minutes. In contrast, the traditional mail and paper-based systems take an average of 10 days from time of initial telesales contact to receipt of signed application.

According to Chela Chief Information Officer Virginia Robbins, the move to online signatures using DocuSign improves customer convenience, lowers administrative and postage costs and eliminates potential delays while items are routed through mail or package delivery services.

Chela was able implement its ESIGN solution in less than 45 days from initial planning through development, testing and rollout. “With only limited resources on the project, we were able to deliver on-time and on budget,” Robbins said.

Founded in January 2003, DocuSign is now the world’s most trusted online signing service. DocuSign’s customers represent industry leading companies in real estate, mortgage, leasing, manufacturing, technology and communications. Named by Gartner, Inc. as a Cool Vendor to watch in 2005, DocuSign is a privately held company based in Seattle, Washington.