CRM supplier Siebel Systems is offering a new set of
industry-specific process enhancements built around Microsoft's
next-generation BizTalk Server 2004 integration
platform.
The enhancements are offered as part of its Universal
Application Network (UAN) business process and system technology
initiative. Siebel has been shipping its UAN technology for the
past year as a way to use prebuilt connectors and objects to link
to back-end and other systems and create integrated processes out
of the box.
The company now has 51 UAN customers, said Nimish Mehta, group
vice president of UAN at Siebel. There are 35 new processes in all,
in addition to 120 workflows that already exist.
With the latest release of BizTalk 2004, Siebel intends to
extend its integration technology to the energy, communications and
media sectors, said Mehta.
For instance, there will be an offering specifically for
wireless carriers that will let call centre employees see all
relevant billing or credit data about a given customer without
having to access multiple screens or systems. Typically, expensive
custom work is needed to achieve that level of integration, but it
now comes as part of the Siebel software offering, he said.
Siebel will also offer support for customer lifecycle management
for media companies, which will ensure that all disparate records
on a given customer are synchronised for accuracy.
The UAN software will be available with Microsoft's release of
BizTalk Server 2004.
Siebel's UAN initiative is critical for its success, said Sheryl
Kingstone, an analyst at The Yankee Group consultancy, as CRM
integration is a priority for the majority of companies this
year.
Marc L Songini writes for Computerworld
