Microsoft is teaming up with Siebel Systems to push forward its
.net server architecture in an alliance covering collaborative
development, sales and support.
The partnership, which is aimed at enterprise customers, was
endorsed by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, at Siebel's annual user
conference in Los Angeles. "Microsoft and Siebel Systems share a
common vision for how enterprise applications should evolve to meet
the demands of the marketplace," he said.
Customer relationship software supplied by Siebel will be the first
to be certified to run on .net, a business model based on selling
software as a service.
Both companies are backing the XML-based Web services model to
simplify and speed integration with Siebel optimising its
e-business applications for Microsoft's .net platform.
Neil Morgan, VP marketing EMEA, Siebel, said the partnership "will
be based on open standards for Web services and won't lock
customers in, driving down the cost and complexity of business
integration."
The partnership has three main elements. In terms of products
Microsoft will support Siebel's Universal Application Network
(UAN). This will mean eventually that Siebel Integration Business
Processes can be implemented and executed on UAN using Microsoft's
BizTalk Server and Visual Studio tools.
On the client side, Siebel eBusiness Applications will use
Microsoft .net technologies to provide what it sees as tighter
integration with Microsoft Office as well as support for emerging
mobile devices.
The third plank of the relationship will see Siebel eBusiness
Applications optimised for Windows Server operating systems,
Microsoft SQL Server and the Microsoft .net framework.
The partnership is likely to involve a major rework of the Siebel
packages according to one industry expert. David Bradshaw, Ovum
lead analyst CRM, warned: "Re-developing something as big as Siebel
to .net is a massive undertaking. It will take years for the fruits
to come through for a .net version of Siebel."