As part of a strategy for the next generation of customer relationship management, Siebel Systems Inc. has announced what it is calling the industry’s only open standards-based service oriented architecture framework for CRM applications.Dubbed “Project Nexus,” a multi-vendor partnership with BEA Systems, IBM and Microsoft, Siebel Customer Adaptive Architecture allowing customers and partners to develop and integrate custom-built CRM applications on both .Net and J2EE platforms.
The architecture is one component of Siebel Customer Adaptive Solutions.
The software company unveiled the new strategy at its CustomerWorld conference here last month, which attracted 2,600 attendees.
The future of “Project Nexus,” however, is somewhat clouded following Oracle Corp.’s announcement last month that it plans to acquire Siebel for US$5.85-billion. The deal, which is expected to close early next year, allows Oracle to gain customers and expertise in the CRM market in a bid to better compete against its largest rival, SAP.
In a pre-recorded video shown during the opening, Oracle chief Larry Ellison expressed his enthusiasm for Siebel’s SOA work. “Siebel has been the pioneer of CRM,” said Ellison. “Those apps will be foundation for Oracle CRM. We’re excited about what Siebel is doing with its SOA. It dovetails beautifully what Oracle’s doing with (Project) Fusion.”
Missing details
Project Fusion is Oracle’s roadmap for combining its acquired products — PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards and now Siebel — with Oracle’s applications. How Nexus will fit into Fusion, however, has yet to be worked out.
Siebel chief executive officer George Shaheen said while he’s encouraged by Ellison’s comments there’s, “still a lot of the devil in the detail there.”
Originally poised to take centre stage at this year’s conference, SOA took a back seat thanks to Oracle’s takeover bid. Despite recent events, Shaheen said until the deal has closed, Siebel will continue to release its on demand, business intelligence and core CRM products. “We are committed to providing you the solutions for your customers to be the focus of all your efforts,” Shaheen told conference attendees. “Both Siebel and Oracle share a common interest in the customer. This combination will produce more innovation in technology leadership to continue to provide you with a business advantage.”
Despite Ellison’s and Shaheen’s assurances, some of Siebel’s customer base, which totals 3.7 million users worldwide, have expressed concern the acquisition could hurt the status of Siebel OnDemand.
But Siebel’s senior vice-president and general manager of products Bruce Cleveland said Oracle has made a strong commitment to OnDemand and currently doesn’t have a multi-tenant offering like Siebel.