Customers never asked for the Sony Walkman. Nor did they express a desperate desire for fax machines, digital cameras, mobile phones, even the humble hoopla-hoop. So if customers are frankly so useless at suggesting innovative, breakthrough products and services, why are many firms now actively trying to access and harness their customers’ knowledge and competence?
Siebel Systems, Inc., a provider of customer-facing solutions, has been recognized as a leader in midmarket sales force automation (SFA) applications, according to a November 2005 Forrester Wave report.1 The report notes that Siebel CRM Professional Edition, the company's on premise CRM offering for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), "offers best-of-breed CRM to the midmarket with a focus on verticals." It goes on to state that "Siebel leads the market in vertical specialization, with deep industry-specific functionality incorporated into editions for financial services; insurance; health care; life sciences; communications, media and energy; and consumer goods."
Forrester evaluated the top midmarket on premise SFA vendors across approximately 151 criteria. Siebel Systems received the highest overall vendor score as well as the highest scores in the Verticalization, Sales Management, Sales Analysis, Integration, and Product Strategy and Vision criteria. According to the report, Siebel CRM Professional Edition's strengths include deep industry-specific functionality and its simple migration path to Siebel's enterprise on premise solution.
"It's an honor to be recognized by Forrester as a leading provider of midmarket CRM applications," said Robert Reid, Group Vice President, SMB, Siebel Systems. "We are dedicated to helping companies of all sizes maximize our world-class CRM functionality, allowing them to increase their business results. Siebel CRM Professional Edition delivers powerful CRM functionality in easy-to-deploy modules that allow midmarket organizations to choose the specific CRM capabilities they need to run their businesses better and be more competitive."
Siebel's latest version, Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8, improves end user adoption through seamless integration with familiar desktop and Web applications and delivers built-in best practices to increase sales, marketing, and service effectiveness. Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8 also provides enhanced call center functionality through integration with Siebel's hosted contact center solution, Siebel Contact OnDemand.
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