Oracle CRM Records Successful Year with Customers and Analysts Throughout the EMEA Region

Oracle today announced that Oracle’s Siebel CRM On Demand has been heralded by end users as providing unrivalled choice of application deployment scenarios and integration options for organisations of all sizes across Europe, Middle East & Africa. In the last year, Oracle expanded its relationships across the region to include leading brands such as, Amazing Global Technologies, Ambu A/S, Experian, Hôtels B&B, Netstore and SAS Cargo Group A/S.

With more than 12 years experience in delivering CRM solutions, Siebel CRM On Demand was identified by leading independent analyst firm, Forrester Research, as having a unique offering with over five cross-vertical and industry specific CRM editions. In the April 2007 report “Oracle’s Siebel CRM On Demand is a Leader in Sales Force Automation”, Liz Herbert, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research wrote, “The vendor understands the needs of a range of industries and can provide best practice expertise in addition to prebuilt industry editions. Siebel CRM On Demand currently sells five vertical editions, which is five more than many of its SaaS CRM competitors.”

“This has been a particularly strong year for Oracle’s Siebel CRM On Demand, as demonstrated by the number of positive analyst reports and the growth of our customer base,” explains Loïc le Guisquet, Senior Vice President for Applications, EMEA. “One of our main differentiators is that customers can operate the Siebel CRM On Demand solution as part of a hybrid strategy that includes Siebel on-premise or other Oracle products. It provides them with a lot of flexibility, which delivers value in their business. Listening to our customers has shown us that on-premise and On Demand is not always a straight choice and that many organisations can benefit from using both solutions in different areas.”

What our customers say:
“When we originally looked into CRM options, we found that with many vendors we only had one choice. Invest in either CRM on demand or on premise. Both have their benefits but at this stage of our growth, we didn’t want to invest in a technology that would require an infrastructure overhaul and an in-house development team,” explains Mr Jean-Jacques Loheac, CIO, Hôtels B&B. “At that time, we were focused on new business and keeping customers happy. But yet, we also didn’t want to go down the SaaS route if it meant that we would be forced to switch vendors when our business grew to the point where on premise became the best option for our business. However quickly our business expands over the coming years, we know that we can switch to Siebel on premise virtually overnight.”

“In our business, we work closely with a broad array of customers across virtually every corner of the globe,” explains Bjoern Teigen, Sales Development Director, Global Sales, SAS Cargo Group. “Ensuring that all our global sales activity is consistent is a priority for our business and Oracle CRM On Demand allows us to do just that. It acts as the central hub for our 300 users in identifying leads in dispersed geographies and presents staff with timely access to relevant information. We’ve also seen real value in its ability to identify leads in international locations, and flag those leads to our European sales force.”
“Ambu chose Siebel CRM OnDemand because we found that it is the best proven CRM OnDemand platform with strong integration options to other applications. Features like pipeline management and tools for lead generation and tracking have improved our ability to apply best practice sales processes. With Siebel CRM On Demand we have achieved highly improved data quality and a completely segmented customer base resulting in access to real-time reporting and insight into the sales pipeline. All this with reduced time spent managing data,” says Hanne-Merete Lassen, Business Consultant at Ambu A/S, project manager for Ambu’s Siebel-project. Ambu develops, produces and markets diagnostic and life-supporting equipment and solutions to hospitals and rescue services.

Access to Continued Innovation
With 14 releases of Siebel CRM On Demand in less than four years, Oracle has firmly established its commitment to deliver product innovations at a rapid pace. Siebel CRM On Demand Release 14 is now available and unites the industry’s most comprehensive CRM functionality with the latest in Web 2.0 technologies. It includes significant enhancements across its sales, marketing, services, analytics, built-in call centre and industry edition capabilities.

Siebel CRM On Demand Release 14 also includes next-generation usability and customisation capabilities, and strong integration capabilities that allow customers and partners to quickly establish deep integration with other applications. Additionally, with the Siebel CRM On Demand Integration Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite, customers benefit from pre-built integration between their subscription CRM applications and their back office in order to accelerate the implementation of end-to-end business processes.