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 : Salesforce.com -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. K. G. who wrote (7)	1/3/2004 9:56:14 AM
From: D. K. G.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 258

Some software customers have left their suppliers and defected to rivals. In 2000, French fax-and-messaging software company Esker SA installed a customer-management system from Siebel Systems for use by 165 employees. Siebel dropped regular support, which includes updates and technical help, for the version Esker was using in June -- but offered to extend that support for about $94,000 a year, or 50% more than the original price. The upgrade itself would have been free, but Jean-Michel Berard, Esker chief executive, estimated that additional hardware, consultants and training would have cost another $175,000, not including Esker's own staff time. "In the '90s or 2000, it was a practice that was accepted, because companies were rich, or thought they were," Mr. Berard says. "That's no longer the case." Esker dropped Siebel and switched to Salesforce.com, a Siebel competitor that runs software systems on its own computers, freeing customers from upgrade worries. Clients use the Internet to connect to Salesforce.com's computers. A Siebel spokesman says Esker is trying to make Siebel look bad because Siebel rebuffed its 2000 request to partner up in selling its fax software, a charge Mr. Berard denies. Message 19648260