Leading Analyst Firm Positions Oracle’s Siebel CRM in Leaders Quadrant for Sales Force Automation

With more than four million CRM deployed seats and more than 150 million registered self-service users, Oracle today announced that its Siebel CRM applications have been positioned in the Leader Quadrant of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation, 2007.1

The Gartner Magic Quadrant provides guidance for organizations that are seeking to purchase, replace or upgrade a sales force automation solution. Gartner’s Magic Quadrant positions vendors in a particular market segment based on their completeness of vision and their ability to execute on that vision.2 According to Gartner, Leaders demonstrate market-defining vision and the ability to execute against that vision through products, services, demonstrable sales figures and solid new references for multiple geographies and vertical industries. A characteristic of a leader is that most competitive vendors will tend to measure their own success against the success of leading vendors.3

“Increasingly companies are looking for sales solutions that improve the customer experience at every stage of the customer life cycle,” said Oracle Vice President of CRM Strategy Mike Betzer. “We believe that Gartner’s positioning of Siebel CRM in the Leaders quadrant is recognition of our flexible deployment options, deep industry functionality and broad solution footprint, which have contributed to our strong market momentum and success in helping companies maximize sales effectiveness by managing all sales channels, and increasing pipeline and win rates.”

Criteria for Placement in Quadrant
Gartner’s Magic Quadrant positions vendors in a particular market segment based on their vision and ability to execute that vision. To be included in the 2007 SFA Magic Quadrant, a vendor must demonstrate that it:

* Has at least 10 customers that have deployed opportunity management systems into live production during the past 12 months;
* Has at least 15 new named customers that were actively deploying opportunity management functionality during the past 12 months;
* Is actively selling or marketing SFA applications to multiple industries and geographies;
* Has proved that it can be deployed in sales organizations of more than 75 users; and,
* Has a vision and commitment to the SFA market for the next three to five years.

The full 2007 Gartner Sales Force Automation Magic Quadrant report can be found at the following URL - http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/oracle/149388.html

1 Gartner Research “Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation, 2007,” by Robert DeSisto, June 29, 2007
2 Gartner Research “Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation, 2007,” by Robert DeSisto, June 29, 2007
3 Gartner Research “Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation, 2006,” by Robert DeSisto, June 29, 2007