Siebel buys into CRM market

Siebel Systems will buy ecommerce software developer OpenSite in a deal worth more than $440m.

The company has also posted a first quarter profit that is nearly double the amount for the same period last year.

The posting has prompted analysts to predict that Siebel's results are echoing previous forecasts about the customer relationship management (CRM) market. For the first quarter ending 31 March, Siebel earned $46.3m on $309.4m in sales, against $21.8m on $141.5m in sales in the same period in 1999.

Peggy Menconi, research director for CRM at analyst AMR Research, said: "CRM is incredibly hot."

Over the past year, Siebel has advanced into areas such as marketing automation, and wireless and small and medium sized enterprise applications. The acquisition of OpenSite is the latest development in the company's plan to become a major player in the CRM market.

OpenSite has developed software which allows companies to provide a host of traditional auction and reverse auction sales transactions. The acquisition is expected to be completed this quarter.

Forrester Research predicted that auction based transactions will become increasingly common in ebusiness. On the back end partner relationship management (PRM) side, Siebel, which has been adding these functions to its overall ebusiness software package, has struck an alliance with ChannelWave Software.

As part of the deal, ChannelWave will integrate its PRM applications with Siebel's business applications. The companies claim to have the most complete offering for direct and indirect sales channels.

OpenSite will operate under the Siebel Systems name, and chief executive Kip Frey will become vice president and general manager of Siebel's eCommerce unit.

First appeared in Computer Reseller News

See also:

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Ecommerce is encouraging the take off of customer relationship management, and resellers should be getting in on the interaction.  12 May 2000

CRM fails to deliver on promise of success

Customer relationship management is being dangled as a juicy carrot, but customers won't bite if resellers fail to justify the costs.  10 May 2000

Siebel launches latest CRM artillery

Siebel Systems has fired another salvo in its war to stay ahead in the customer relationship management (CRM) market with the release of Siebel eBusiness 2000 suite.  20 Apr 2000

Siebel to acquire auction developer

Siebel Systems plans to add auction facilities to its customer relationship management suite through a $440m acquisition of software developer OpenSite.  19 Apr 2000

SAP drops Siebel lawsuit

SAP said it has dropped two lawsuits against rival Siebel Systems, which centred around the hiring by Siebel of more than two dozen SAP executives.  18 Mar 2000

Siebel signs i2 and Manugistics for B2B ecommerce assault

Siebel Systems and i2 have signed a development and marketing deal in an attempt to create more efficient, extended supply chains for the business to business ecommerce market.  09 Feb 2000

Siebel beats fourth quarter expectations amid talk of new apps

Siebel Systems said it expected to make significant investments in developing wireless application protocol (Wap) based applications over the coming fiscal year as it stormed ahead for its fiscal fourth quarter.  26 Jan 2000

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