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

To: Lee L. who wrote (2651)	4/6/1999 8:47:00 AM
From: Lee L.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6974

X-Scopus executives start new company... ccnews.com SAN MATEO, CA -- A new player has entered the customer care market. Octane Software Inc. officially launched its company Feb. 16, with a promise to begin shipping its product in March. Octane bills itself as the first vendor in the front office industry to focus exclusively on the meeting the needs of the "Digital 1000." Octane executives define the "Digital 1000" as the leaders in ebusiness. They include businesses, such as United Airlines, Eddie Bauer, Citibank, Time Warner and The Wall Street Journal. The founders of Octane are two former Siebel executives: Tim Guleri serves as chief executive officer, and Kira Makagon serves as chief technology officer and senior vice president, product development. Guleri was formerly vice president of product marketing and business development at Scopus Technology (now Siebel Systems). Makagon served as vice president of product development at Scopus. Participating in more than 400 call center installations and upgrades convinced Guleri that the market was ready for the products Octane is offering. He and his team talked with the executives of company after company, across several industries, including consumer electronics, travel and online banking and trading. "We know we shouldn't come up with these ideas in the dark,"Guleri says. CEO after CEO expressed the same concern, says Guleri. They were not as worried about their companies' ability to attract customers, he says, as much as how to support and keep them. "The market for front office software is still in its infancy, but the requirements of Digital 1000 businesses have surpassed the ability of today's applications," says Guleri. "In the Internet economy, response times are measured in seconds." Guleri says companies are asking for pre-packaged digital front offices, and rather than forcing users to "bolt on" these capabilities, Octane is developing interactive customer care applications from the ground up. The Octane suite includes: iChannels, a product that allows companies to incorporate new communications technologies, such as the Web, email and text chat along with phone and fax. iCubes, a product designed to provide real-time business intelligence to help customers and other users personalize their interactions. Rapid process modeling methodology that allows business analysts to create and change customer care processes on the fly-without programming. The typical system will cost $250,000, says Guleri, well below the $6 million average cost to implement an email application and the $13 million in annual maintenance and promotion. "The numbers we've run are showing return on investment in six to nine months," says Guleri, "not including good will and marketing perception." Guleri believes he and his team are beginning their new venture at just the right time. Boston-based AMR Research calculates that company revenue from customer relationship management software providers totaled $1.9 billion in 1998 and will jump to $11.5 billion by 2002, an average annual growth of nearly 100 percent. Many companies remain unprepared for that growth, says Guleri, and that's where Octane can help.CCN