IBM and Siebel Systems Team to Bring Sales, Marketing and Customer Support Solutions to IBM DB2 Universal Database
Technology Partnership Enables Customers to Dramatically Increase Sales Productivity and Enhance Customer Relationships Worldwide
Somers, N.Y., & San Mateo, Calif (September 23, 1998) – Siebel Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SEBL) and IBM today announced a development partnership that will bring Siebel’s Enterprise Relationship Management (ERM) solutions to IBM’s award-winning DB2* Universal Database. For the first time, DB2 Universal Database customers will be able to rapidly develop and deploy Siebel’s integrated sales, marketing and customer support products to increase sales productivity and enhance customer satisfaction. IBM and Siebel anticipate the first combined product and service offerings to be available in 1999.
“Customers are the most important asset a company has, and deploying technology to make dramatic improvements in customer relationship management is enabling the next wave of competitive differentiation,” said Janet Perna, general manager, data management, IBM Software Solutions. “The ability to implement these business-critical applications on a scalable, robust, cross-platform database is increasingly important to our customers. Our partnership with Siebel Systems, designed to deliver these strategic applications on DB2 Universal Database, will help meet customer demands for reliable, integrated solutions.”
According to Forrester Research Inc., the 1997 Enterprise Relationship Management software market was $950 million. As the market matures, Forrester forecasts a 53.9% compound annual growth rate, reaching $3.5 billion in the year 2000.
“IBM has realized the business-critical role ERM solutions can play in increasing sales, productivity and efficiency for customers,” said Thomas M. Siebel, chairman and CEO of Siebel Systems. “The combination of Siebel’s ERM software with IBM’s advanced DB2 Universal Database will enable customers to easily and quickly deploy highly scalable, state-of-the-art solutions for managing their valuable customer relationships across the enterprise.”
Under the terms of the agreement, IBM and Siebel also plan to:
jointly test, performance optimize and coordinate field sales and support activities to help customers obtain maximum performance, reliability and scalability for Siebel solutions;
develop benchmarking and competency centers to ensure the rapid and successful deployment of Siebel Enterprise Applications on IBM’s DB2 Universal Database;
jointly train their respective organizations to cooperatively market, sell and segment mutual customers running Siebel applications on DB2 Universal Database; and
certify and optimize Siebel applications for IBM RS/6000* and additional DB2 Universal Database platforms.
IBM and Siebel Product Offerings
IBM DB2 Universal Database is the industry’s first multimedia, Web-ready relational database management system — powerful enough to meet the demands of large corporations and flexible enough to serve medium-sized and small businesses. DB2 Universal Database combines the power of business intelligence (decision support, data warehousing and data mining) with industry-leading performance and reliability for transaction processing. It delivers on IBM’s network computing promise, linking the world’s business information with the Internet.
Siebel offers the most comprehensive family of sales, service and marketing information solutions available. Siebel’s integrated ERM application software — including Siebel Sales Enterprise, Siebel Marketing Enterprise, Siebel Service Enterprise and Siebel Call Center — enable sales, marketing and service professionals to increase sales productivity, enhance customer satisfaction, and capitalize on each moment of value with the customer.
About IBM
IBM creates, develops and manufactures some of the industry’s most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices, and microelectronics. IBM offers information about the company and its products through the World Wide Web. The fastest, easiest way to get information about IBM software is through the IBM software home page at http://www.software.ibm.com.
Source: IBM