Siebel Systems Announces Solution to Increase Marketing Effectiveness for the Pharmaceutical Industry(email this article)

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 2003-- Siebel Systems (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies), Inc. (NASDAQ:SEBL - News), a leading provider of multichannel business applications software, today announced it has joined forces with Accenture, Microsoft Corp., and Proscape Technologies to deliver new pharmaceutical marketing capabilities that allow sales representatives to provide better-targeted information during physician sales calls.

Now available, this solution enables pharmaceutical sales representatives to automatically capture physician information during sales meetings. As a result, representatives can spend more time in the field -- serving physicians -- rather than in the office recording and analyzing meeting results. This closed-loop marketing solution also enables physicians to make more informed purchasing decisions by offering customized product information, evidence gathered through clinical research, and comparative analyses of medicines.

With this solution, Siebel Pharma is delivering tailored information to physicians using a Microsoft Tablet PC and Proscape Technologies' software. As physicians use the Microsoft Tablet PC to indicate the information they are interested in getting from the pharmaceutical representative, the Proscape software records the physicians' interests and preferences. Physicians also are able to provide specific feedback via the Proscape software. Siebel Pharma analyzes the data and pharmaceutical companies can then use the resulting information to design more effective marketing campaigns. As the implementation partner, Accenture provides deep industry knowledge, technology expertise, and program management to successfully design and deliver this new approach.

"The days of pharmaceutical companies adding more feet on the street to grow market share are over," said Dale Hagemeyer, Principal Analyst, Gartner Inc. "The winners going forward will be those who can effectively segment their customers and deliver the right message at the right time through the right medium. They will also be able to optimize their impact at the point of influence with interactive tools that deliver a tailored, visually engaging message."

When resources are limited, pharmaceutical companies must find efficient ways to enable their sales representatives to more effectively meet the needs of physicians. A recent Accenture survey indicates that physicians need information that will help them to make more informed buying decisions -- but only about one-third of physicians said they consider pharmaceutical sales representatives important sources of such information. The survey also found that approximately one-third of physicians found sales visits are helpful, with an additional 36 percent stating they want more current comparative or clinical data and analyses that are relevant to their practices, as well as objective sources of information on usage and side effects. With this new marketing approach from Siebel and its partners, pharmaceutical companies can now ensure more effective territory management, allowing sales representatives to spend more time out in the field, focusing on bringing the right information to the physician.

"Siebel Systems, with its increasingly strong understanding of the pharmaceutical industry, has enabled Novartis affiliates in several countries to more successfully market and sell products through efficient call handling and better cross-channel communication and coordination," said Eric Talbott, Vice President, Global Sales, Novartis. "This new solution, when combined with clear business-building priorities and capabilities, will help companies market and sell more effectively by providing the ability to easily analyze customer information gathered during sales meetings or other events and freeing sales representatives to spend more time in the field. It enables effective territory management, targeting, and messaging in less time and with less effort."

Closed-loop marketing capabilities align marketing and sales business processes, enabling companies to target and segment customers, design and execute marketing campaigns, and analyze customers' responses to product messages. For pharmaceutical companies, closed-loop marketing capabilities enable the creation of segment- specific drug detailing aids, the delivery of custom detailing to physicians through the field sales channel, the collection of responses to product messages at the point of customer interaction, and the use of responses to further refine marketing campaigns based on real-time feedback. By providing these capabilities, the solution announced today enables organizations to conduct more effective marketing campaigns and provide providing support for all of the steps in the marketing and sales process.

About Siebel Systems

Siebel Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of business applications software, enabling corporations to sell to, market to, and serve customers across multiple channels and lines of business. With more than 3,500 customer deployments worldwide, Siebel Systems provides organizations with a proven set of industry-specific best practices, CRM applications, and business processes, empowering them to consistently deliver superior customer experiences and establish more profitable customer relationships. Siebel Systems' sales and service facilities are located in more than 30 countries.

Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risk or uncertainties. Future operating results of Siebel Systems may differ from the results discussed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements due to factors that include, but are not limited to, risks associated with customer relations, such as the availability of Siebel Systems' products and services, customer implementation of products and services, relationships with customers, third-party vendors and systems integrators, concentration of revenues in a relatively small number of customers, existence of errors or defects in products, ability to successfully manage growth, significant current and expected additional competition and the need to continue to expand product distribution and services offerings. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of Siebel Systems are included in Siebel Systems' Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at www.sec.gov. Siebel Systems assumes no obligation to update the information in this press release.

Siebel is a trademark of Siebel Systems, Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only.