CRM Decision Time

Siebel Systems' Siebel 7.5, including the MidMarket Edition, made its debut last Wednesday, and a second beta version of Microsoft CRM (MS-CRM) is slated to come out this month.

Midmarket VARs that had offered the Great Plains Siebel Front Office bundle of Microsoft/Great Plains accounting and Siebel Midmarket software will now have to decide which way to go, since that bundle will no longer be offered come the end of the year.

Designed to ease deployments, even into specialized vertical niches, Siebel 7.5 integrates best-practice definitions and new employee relationship management and analytics applications, according to Siebel, San Mateo, Calif.

Jay Fruin, president of Leveraged Technology, a New York-based solution provider, said MS-CRM is nowhere near as feature-rich as Siebel's offering. "But that might be a good thing, because not every app needs that depth," he said.

Microsoft is focusing on ease of use with MS-CRM, which is expected to be released late this year.

"The three best things about MS-CRM are it works with Outlook, it works with Outlook and it works with Outlook," said Andy Vabulas, president of I.B.I.S., an Atlanta solution provider

I.B.I.S. plans to adopt MS-CRM, Vabulas said, adding that millions of users are already familiar with the e-mail interface and features of Microsoft Outlook.

Integrator Internosis also is taking a close look at Microsoft's upcoming business applications, said Richard Warren, chief strategy architect at the Arlington, Va.-based company.

"If you don't get into the apps, you're stuck with servers, where margins are not as attractive as they used to be," he said.

Still, when it comes to Microsoft, a number of channel-related issues remain, solution providers said.

"There is a basic qualification mismatch. The traditional Microsoft channel has always been told to affiliate, deliver and [then certify," Warren said. "Certification is based on X number of successful implementations. The model for the Microsoft Business Solutions channel is to affiliate, certify then deliver. It's a Catch-22. I can't even deliver a business solution until I certify. What drives my business while I do that?"