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Option 10: Building for the future

We believe the U.S. economy is now more likely to experience a U-shaped recession where the rate of decline is rapid and the recovery slower. This period of uncertainty creates an opportunity for companies that have the resources and will to invest in sales and marketing. The leaders during the next major expansion phase will be those that invest during a downturn.

Our discussion with customers shows that companies invest in customer relationship management and marketing services solutions as much for operational efficiency as revenue generation. This is one area where initiatives that effectively cut costs can also build a foundation for future growth.

Automating the direct sales force with better account management, proposal generation, forecasting and territory management tools can increase the number of deals in the pipeline. It will also reduce the amount of time, resources and inaccuracies in the process. If managed intelligently, a strategic CRM program can create a virtuous circle of cost saving, increased customer satisfaction and new revenue potential.

In this environment, selecting the right technology foundation for customer initiatives has never been more important. This is a time to tightly manage risk and limit investments on stand-alone component technology. Against this backdrop, Siebel Systems is the only game in town. They have the breadth of products, services and partnerships to be the strategic choice for nearly every major customer project. We have tracked the CRM market closely for a decade, and each major study has shown Siebel grow incrementally as the strategic choice.

In our experience, there are compelling reasons to select both Siebel’s enterprise and hosted SaaS products. Having experience on both sides of the SaaS versus enterprise software debate, we view this phase in the business cycle as contrarian. Now is the time to purchase enterprise CRM software. Software vendors like Siebel are even more willing to sharpen their pencils to close a deal. As the business climate improves, today’s investments will bear fruit quickly.