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

To: Lee L. who wrote (1204)	3/10/1998 9:20:00 PM
From: Melissa McAuliffe	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6974

Lee, I hadn't heard about the letter so thanks for the info. I'm sure I have mentioned previously that my belief is that what is important is how this is positioned in the marketplace. To me, the key words in this letter are "seamless upgrade paths". If sebl can convince its customers and prospects that it will continue to support and maintain the current products and at some point in time deliver a new enhanced product with a seamless upgrade path, I am of the opinion this will be more than adequate. Whether it takes 18months or three years isn't so much the issue as what will it mean to the customers when they get it. This may actually not be all that different from installing a new major software release which most customers expect and are used to. This will become more of an issue down the road when the new release is imminent than it is now. That's what always happens. It seems as if most of the discussion on these threads revolves around technical issues and whether or not it can be done, how long will it take, etc. My opinion is to let the people at sebl worry about that which I am sure they have done in going forward with this acquisition. I think it's more important to focus on the bigger picture which I sometimes feel is being clouded by all these technical discussions. SEBL is very hot right now. They appear to have it together and seem to be executing very well. Melissa

To: Lee L. who wrote (1204)	3/11/1998 9:26:00 AM
From: seth thomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6974

>> The META group estimates that it will take Siebel three years to complete the product consolidations. That's more or less consistent what I would have guessed, and is consistent with the thoughts of a former senior SEBL development manager who I know. Three years! What a boon for VNTV. Think about how much time and energy will go into merging the products, as opposed to innovation. Think about three years worth of dissatisfied customers. You could build a great new product in less time, starting from scratch, and for a lot less than $460MM (now $375MM). Man, what was Tom thinking?