LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 2, 2003--BT and Siebel Systems (Company
Profile, Past
Stories, Case
Studies) (Nasdaq:SEBL - News) today announced that BT is the first UK-based company to introduce Siebel CRM OnDemand to businesses in the UK.
The new on demand service enables small and medium-sized organizations and divisions of larger businesses to organize, manage, and streamline their sales, marketing,
and customer service activity through a hosted environment. It can be used as a stand-alone to run a business or integrated with on-site deployments of Siebel enterprise
applications. This gives customers the choice of running their CRM system in a hosted environment, on-site, or in any combination of the two.
The service will be fully available in the first quarter of 2004 and will be marketed, sold, hosted, and supported by BT. Customers will be able to access the service either as
an integrated part of BT's existing Siebel-based Contact Central CRM portfolio, which extends the Siebel application to provide a full multimedia contact center solution, or
as a stand-alone CRM application. Companies will be able to sign up for any number of licenses they need, all at a fixed price per user per month. Trial customers will be
beta testing the BT-customized version of Siebel CRM OnDemand over the turn of the year.
Pierre Danon, chief executive officer of BT Retail, said, "There has long been a demand for an easy-to-use, quick-to-implement, and low-cost CRM application. By
providing a CRM tool that requires no up-front set-up costs or complex configuration arrangements, BT will help businesses that have previously not been able to justify the
expenditure in bespoke CRM applications to compete on a level footing with those that have made those investments."
Together, BT and Siebel broaden the reach of Siebel CRM OnDemand, offering a hosted CRM solution to all UK organizations regardless of price sensitivity or deployment
preference. Siebel CRM OnDemand, announced in October, and Siebel's recent acquisition of online CRM provider UpShot, are part of an overall strategy to extend Siebel's
worldwide CRM leadership into the hosted market segment.
David Schmaier, executive vice president of Siebel Systems, Inc., added, "Extending our partnership with BT in the UK helps both companies realize a shared vision of
providing customers with the broad reach and depth needed to make CRM pervasive throughout organizations at the lowest total cost of ownership. This new breed of CRM
solutions delivers CRM for everyone, uniting hosted and on-premise deployment models in any combination to meet customers' needs."
BT's offering of Siebel CRM OnDemand is an extension of the already successful partnership between BT and Siebel Systems. This includes BT Contact Central, the first
off-the-shelf customer contact center technology based on a combination of pure IP multimedia technology, Siebel's CRM software, and BT's integration capability and
service support. It also includes a program to deliver solutions for local governments, ranging from small district councils to large metropolitan authorities.
BT Retail is a key customer of Siebel Systems with one of the largest and most ambitious CRM implementations ever, involving more than 22,500 users and creating a
single view of more than 21 million consumer and business customers. Through this project, BT Retail anticipates cost savings of more than GBP120 million ($200 million)
by 2004.
About BT
BT Group plc is the listed holding company for the BT Group of companies, while British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly owned subsidiary. BT is one of the world's
leading providers of telecommunications services and one of the largest private sector companies in Europe. Its principal activities include local, long distance and
international telecommunications services, Internet and broadband services, and IT solutions. In the UK, BT serves more than 28 million exchange lines as well as providing
network services to other licensed operators.
About Siebel Systems
Siebel Systems 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 organization 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.
About Siebel CRM OnDemand
Siebel CRM OnDemand is a hosted CRM offering delivered over the Web and accessible from an Internet browser at a fixed price per user per month. Customers can deploy
Siebel CRM OnDemand quickly, easily, and affordably, without any up-front IT investments. Siebel CRM OnDemand delivers complete sales, marketing, and service
functionality; built-in customer analytics; embedded best practices; and world-class hosting services and support.
Siebel CRM OnDemand is the industry's first and only hosted CRM solution designed to work in conjunction with "on-premise" Siebel CRM systems. Sharing a
common data model with Siebel 7 applications, Siebel CRM OnDemand offers an easy migration path to on-premise Siebel CRM systems. Siebel CRM OnDemand
incorporates a user interface (UI) designed to maximize user success and adoption without extensive training.
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