Ask The CRM Expert: Questions & Answers

Becoming a Siebel partner: What are the benefits?

Becoming a Siebel partner: What are the benefits?

By  William Band, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research 

SearchCRM.com

I've heard from other organizations in my industry who are partnering with Siebel. In your eyes, what are the benefits of becoming a Siebel partner? Are there different partner levels?
Systems integrators (SIs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) typically partner with CRM solutions providers for three reasons:

  • To get referrals to new business opportunities (new clients)
  • To be able to build unique solutions on the vendor's platform
  • To get the training required to become certified to implement the solution

    Before Oracle acquired Siebel, only the very large SIs benefited from partnering with Siebel. In fact, Siebel often competed with their SI partners for deals.

    Since the acquisition, the company has been re-thinking how it will work with partners, but I have had no feedback from partners about whether the new approach is better than the old.

    On the other hand, Microsoft is making a big push now to build out and market its CRM offerings through ISVs and other third parties. The company has had good success in other sectors working with third parties on go-to-market programs and developing proprietary solutions owned by the partner. Perhaps you should take look at that vendor.

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