Oracle expands SaaS offering

Oracle Corporation has launched Siebel on Demand, Release 14, its latest customer relationship management (CRM) solution to take advantage of the tremendous growth in Software as a Service (SaaS) in Thailand in a move that promises more flexibility and rapid deployment while at the same time taking advantage of integration with Oracle's strength in the enterprise back office.

Speaking to journalists here, Oracle Asia-Pacific Vice-President for CRM Will Bosma explained how in the last earnings call, Oracle president Charles Philips had noted that demand for CRM on demand as well as traffic to the Oracle's website for on-demand software, or Software as a Service, was growing, year on year at 74 percent.

While Oracle does not break out figures on a regional- or country-basis, Bosma said that the trend was similar across the Asia-Pacific region.

A number of factors have contributed to this rise.

Today's organisations need to think big, while starting off small. CRM in particular is important as sales and marketing is usually the most dynamic part of an organisation. With companies interacting with customers in more and more ways, through the telephone, call centres, chat, it is important to have a single view during the moment of truth that is the point of contact with the customer.Today, more and more organisations are also looking at business analytics to drive the business, going beyond transactional reports and trend analysis.

One further point Bosma that raised was the need for quick results to win over the usually reluctant sales and marketing staff.

"CRM on demand and SaaS directly address these four points. Typical implementation time is around three to six weeks," he explained.

He said that the reason for picking Siebel on demand was varied. Some wanted the standardisation of sales processes and access to the best practices, in other words, tapping into the experience that Oracle Siebel had in CRM.

Others wanted to be able to roll out CRM at a fraction of the cost of doing the solution in-house. Many needed the quick time to implementation in new markets before they graduated to their own on-premise solution, he said.

He also claimed that Oracle was the only on-demand CRM vendor that had pre-built customisations for many industry-specific verticals such as life sciences, medical, automotive and high tech.

According to Gartner, by 2011, one quarter of all CRM installations will be of an on-demand, SaaS nature. IDC is also similarly bullish and has noted that in the region, half of all new CRM project roll outs were of an on-demand nature.

With the new, more-affordable pricing structure and ease of roll-out, Oracle today is seeing new opportunities in CRM such as for organisations or even simple clubs that need to attract and maintain members.

The latest Release 14 of Siebel on demand features improved usability, ease of administration and customisation through wizards without the need for programming expertise.

It also adds integration into Oracle's enterprise-class e-Business suite so that not only can they share data, but an event in Siebel on-demand can trigger a business process and vice versa. It also features a richer user interface through the latest web 2.0 technologies and Ajax.

As for licensing, two new options are available in addition to the existing US$70 per seat per month option. Companies or organisations that cannot or will not use a multi-tenanted infrastructure (shared server) can opt for R14 private edition, in which the software runs on a dedicated server and database situated within the Oracle data centre.

At the other end of the scale is the partner licensing option at just US$20 per user per month which allows an external partner, dealer or franchisee to share some functionality, and is the one used by the Ford Motor Company for its dealers here in Thailand.

As for Thai language support, Oracle Thailand has delivered this as field customisation to many local customers, including Ford, but Bosma said he hoped to make an announcement as to when Thai would be an officially-supported language within the next couple of weeks.

Author: Don Sambandaraksa