Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Siebel Systems (SEBL) - strong buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Turs who wrote (3011)	9/15/1999 11:23:00 PM
From: Mike Buckley	Respond to of 6974

Larry Ellison accidently let it slip that HWP will be standardizing on ORCL's CRM product suite. Graham says he doesn't think SEBL was even invited to compete for that business. Considering the relationship Siebel has with Compaq, I wouldn't be surprised that Hewlett-Packard decided not to invite Siebel. What could be more important is to know if anyone was asked to offer serious competition to Oracle. It would also be interesting to know if Oracle had to bundle the CRM stuff to sell it or if they had to give the stuff away instead of charging market prices. We'll probably never know. --Mike Buckley

To: Turs who wrote (3011)	9/16/1999 10:34:00 AM
From: Shege Dambanza	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6974

I'd be curious to see the press release if/when it comes out. I know HP has at least 5 different divisions using different modules of Clarify, and they have sunk huge amounts of money into their Clarify apps. Oracle displacing Clarify? This I got to see.

To: Turs who wrote (3011)	9/16/1999 12:41:00 PM
From: Trader Dave	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6974

<<With that said, on the earnings conference call yesterday, Larry Ellison accidently let it slip that HWP will be standardizing on ORCL's CRM product suite. >> And Larry Ellison makes Bill Clinton look ethical. Turs, you'd learn something by talking to Oracle sales people. It is a standard practice at Oracle to recognize revenues in any fashion they deem appropriate. If you want the DBMS and the rep says, how about this free CRM and financial apps package? Sure why not? Rep goes back to HQ, deal gets booked as 100% CRM and 0% DBMS. Find me one significant referencable install on the Oracle CRM product. Can't be done. Larry is writing checks with his big mouth that his company can't cash. Oracle will be as much of a threat to SEBL in CRM as Oracle was to SAP in financials and ERP. They'll win some business eventually, but at some point you'd think that Larry's sleaze would catch up with him. TD

To: Turs who wrote (3011)	9/17/1999 12:05:00 AM
From: Beltropolis Boy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6974

>I saw Siebel present at a conference today. Howard Graham, CFO, made an interesting comment. He said it's perplexing how Oracle can be doing so well in CRM ($31m in most recent quarter and $41m in May Q). Siebel is competing against ORCL in maybe 4 of 100 deals currently and Graham says Clarify claims not to see much of ORCL either.< turs. you might get a kick out of this excerpt from an interview with oracle CFO jeff henley. given ellison's ability to speak from his sphincter, my guess is that he taught henley to 'whistle' from both sides of his mouth. cheers, -chris. ----- September 14, 1999 9:31pm Q&A: Oracle CFO Jeff Henley By Sergio G. Non ZDII ZDII: The other field I'm wondering about is CRM (customer relationship management) software. Oracle continues to see a rapid growth there, and yet if you talk to Siebel or Vantive or someone like that, they keep saying they don't see Oracle in their contract competitions. Why do you think that is? Henley: Well, I think, first of all, there's a lot of truth to it. I think the other thing is that they really frankly don't want to acknowledge us. I think that they're a little bit in denial. But I think that the reality is that we are new to CRM, it's a big market, there's a lot of growth, and I think that there's a lot of growth that we'll all get for awhile. So in a new market, there's a number of people who do well. We saw that in our database business years ago, a lot of our competitors, like us, grew nicely. I think that's the truth of it: we're not competing that heavily with lots of people. As the market starts to mature, as we all get bigger, then I think you'll see a lot more competition. But we are definitely starting to engage in certain areas against these various guys, and they'll deny this for awhile. But if we keep posting triple digit growth every quarter, eventually I suspect they'll sing a little different tune. for the complete interview: zdii.com