Siebel Unveils New CRM Software Suite

Siebel Systems Inc. has announced the release of Siebel 7, the seventh version of its customer relationship management solution for financial services.

According to San Mateo, Calif.-based Siebel, the new software tool is a “suite of applications for customer relationship management” that includes programs for partner relationship management and employee relationship management–”all based on a common Web architecture.”

Siebel claims to hold 72 percent of the CRM market in the insurance industry. According to Ronald L. Young, senior director of product marketing for Siebel, insurance was the first vertical market for which Siebel developed its CRM suite.

Siebel 7 has been designed with features specific to insurance and financial services, said Mr. Young. This includes Siebel “eInsurance,” with functionality specific to policy service, claims management, billing account maintenance, sales, field service and Web self-service for customers.

The company noted that Siebel 7 enables an organization to “more effectively identify, select, acquire and retain customers.” It provides a centralized repository of customer data that is captured from all customer interactions “across channels and touchpoints.”

Siebel said the updated software suite provides “real-time analytical ability to track and understand both customer behavior and key indicators of corporate performance.” It also “enables organizations to be digitally wired to their customers, partners and employees.”

The new release “runs mobile or connected,” which makes it convenient for claims adjusters, said Mr. Young. It also moves users away from having the program resident on their computers to an “all browser” model. In essence, it allows the carrier to become an application service provider for agents, he observed.

Mr. Young said the application uses what Siebel calls “Smart Web Architecture.” This technology combines a zero footprint (there is no software to install separately and administer from the Windows desktop) with levels of interactivity normally available in Windows applications, the company explained.

“For instance,” said Siebel, “with Siebel Smart Web Architecture, users can invoke user interface metaphors–such as dragging columns to rearrange their order, or selecting a record to edit it–in ways that simply were not previously possible in flat HTML Web clients.”

Mr. Young added that the zero footprint format of the new release results in “lower total cost of ownership for our customers.” Because it is strictly browser-based, he noted, it can also accommodate multiple computer platforms, as well as multiple spoken languages.

The cost for the new Siebel release for financial services may range from $500 to $3,000 per user, depending on volume and other factors, said Mr. Young. Installation time ranges from three weeks to six months, depending on functionality desired, when the installation is from scratch.

If a company already uses a previous version of the software, the physical upgrade time is “about one day,” he added. That would be followed by a review of the companys logs and testing of the software, which could take anywhere from two weeks to a month.

Training for Siebel 7 for financial services will take between two and five days, Mr. Young explained. The training may be provided by Siebel or by third-party organizations.

Further information is available at www.siebel.com.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, January 14, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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Siebel Unveils New CRM Software Suite

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