Siebel Unveils New CRM Software Suite

Siebel Systems Inc. has announced the release of Siebel 7, theseventh version of its customer relationship management solutionfor financial services.

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

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

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

The company noted that Siebel 7 enables an organization to “moreeffectively identify, select, acquire and retain customers.” Itprovides a centralized repository of customer data that is capturedfrom all customer interactions “across channels andtouchpoints.”

Siebel said the updated software suite provides “real-timeanalytical ability to track and understand both customer behaviorand key indicators of corporate performance.” It also “enablesorganizations to be digitally wired to their customers, partnersand employees.”

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

Mr. Young said the application uses what Siebel calls “Smart WebArchitecture.” This technology combines a zero footprint (there isno software to install separately and administer from the Windowsdesktop) with levels of interactivity normally available in Windowsapplications, the company explained.

“For instance,” said Siebel, “with Siebel Smart WebArchitecture, users can invoke user interface metaphors–such asdragging columns to rearrange their order, or selecting a record toedit it–in ways that simply were not previously possible in flatHTML Web clients.”

Mr. Young added that the zero footprint format of the newrelease results in “lower total cost of ownership for ourcustomers.” Because it is strictly browser-based, he noted, it canalso accommodate multiple computer platforms, as well as multiplespoken languages.

The cost for the new Siebel release for financial services mayrange from $500 to $3,000 per user, depending on volume and otherfactors, said Mr. Young. Installation time ranges from three weeksto six months, depending on functionality desired, when theinstallation 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 wouldbe followed by a review of the companys logs and testing of thesoftware, which could take anywhere from two weeks to a month.

Training for Siebel 7 for financial services will take betweentwo and five days, Mr. Young explained. The training may beprovided 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 serialpublication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.

Contact Webmaster