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Technology Stocks : Vantive Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: seth thomas who wrote (1641)	3/6/1998 2:22:00 PM
From: still learning	Respond to of 3033

I'd like to solicit input on the following question (also posed to the CLFY thread): Can anyone give a detailed competitive update vis a vis SEBL/SCOP from the VNTV standpoint? Specifically, I'm interested in product integration and database integration issues the two companies will face. How will this help/hurt CLFY, VNTV, and others? Also, If you have time, could you compare the relative value of an integrated suites approach (SEBL) to a single enterprise system (e.g. CLFY or possibly some new up-and-comers such as Chordiant, and Interactive Intelligence -- companies pushing a single integrated system that is used for the entire enterprise)?

To: seth thomas who wrote (1641)	3/6/1998 2:23:00 PM
From: Melissa McAuliffe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3033

These may be valid points. I guess unless we work there we really don't know. Having given this some thought, I think that even if they are it comes down to how comfortable sebl can make its prospects and/or customers with its vision of the future. The current customers have already made their decision and all they want is the assurance that they won't lose the capabilities they have today and that wherever this product is going it will be a fairly transparent process and in the end they will end up with something equal or better to what they have today. With respect to new prospects, they really want the same thing. The key is how well thought out is the vision and how effectively it iscommunicated. That's where the Marketing Department comes into play. It's their job to take this vision of the future and put the words around it and assure that every person communicating in the marketplace can deliver the message effectively. Since it appears to be an acknowledged fact that sebl has a superior sales and marketing organization, I would be very surprised to see many major problems. Sure there may be a few glitches along the way but that is to be expected. Nothing goes perfectly all the time. I went through something similar to this a while back (though on a much larger more complex scale) and found this to be the case. Again, it all depends on who is out there delivering the message. I have always believed that a superior sales and marketing organization can make anything happen. Why else do companies who do not have either the most technically or functionally elegant product succeed? Salesmanship, IMHO. Of course the competition will try to create FUD. Who wouldn't. But I would assume that sebl either has in place or is developing the strategy to respond effectively. They are just too much of a sales & marketing oriented company to not have thought this through. Again, this is just MHO. Melissa