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How does Siebel OnDemand CRM stack up in the SaaS CRM market?

How does Siebel OnDemand CRM stack up in the SaaS CRM market?

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

SearchCRM.com

How does Siebel OnDemand CRM stack up in the Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM market? That product seems to have stalled recently.
The SaaS CRM market is very robust. Vendors Salesforce.com and RightNow Technologies have posted impressive sales gains as buyers increasingly adopt the SaaS deployment option. Other CRM vendors have responded with their own SaaS offerings, for example, Siebel's — now Oracle's — Siebel OnDemand CRM and SAP's new CRM SaaS offering. With more frequent upgrades, lower risk, and lower upfront costs, customer demand for this deployment option shows no signs of slowing down.

Oracle's Siebel OnDemand CRM has achieved success in the market by offering the same benefits as other SaaS CRM solutions: quick time-to-value, usability, and low upfront costs. This value proposition is attractive to both small and midsized businesses (SMBs), buyers and smaller units of enterprise-class organizations. Its primary functional strengths are in the areas of sales force automation (SFA) and customer analytics. Basic functionality is provided for most other CRM functional capabilities, but it lacks capabilities in e-commerce and partner channel management. The product has a defined presence in five industry vertical editions: wealth management, insurance, automotive, life sciences, and high-tech.