Siebel CRM OnDemand update

Its nice to have a blog that people read. Thank you to whomever let IBM/Siebel know that I was frustrated -- suddenly a "CRM OnDemand Solution Specialist" contacted me from IBM. She was very friendly and she has set me up with a trial account that begins on Monday. It appears to be a manual process...

Suggestions to those of you at Siebel and IBM who may be reading this:

1) Automate your process for issuing a trial account -- when I register to try your software, your service should be "on demand"

2) Have your salesperson contact me to offer to help after I have a trial account not as a barrier to my getting a trial account. Use that contact as an opportunity to find out something about how I intend to use the product.

3) I got the impression that you hope that people who sign up for the "trial" will begin actually using the service and entering real data. Why would I do that? If, like Salesforce, you had a lightweight version for free I might, and then you might hook me and I'd want to upgrade to a pay version. But as it is I know that my trial will end in 30 days so I will play with your product so that I can learn about how it compares to your competitor but I will not be so foolish as to really use the product and then have my data go away in 30 days.

I look forward to receiving my userid and password on Monday...

Salesforce.com has nothing to worry about

CRM Daily ran an interesting article recently, predicting that Salesforce.com is going to feel increasing pressure from SAP and Siebel, who recently acquired Salesforce competitor Upshot. In Will the Siebel-IBM OnDemand Initiative Crush Salesforce.com CRMDaily writer Kimberly Hill pulls together a tired group of analyst quotes in the old Fear Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) method, suggesting that having such big companies in the race will spell doom for little upstart Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com needn't worry

As a potential customer of an online SFA system I recently visited both Salesforce.com and Siebel to find out more about their products.

At Salesforce.com I was able to immediately sign up for and start using a free version of their product. A Salesforce.com salesperson called me that day to ask if I had any questions or problems and what the size of my ultimate implementation would be (should he spend any more time trying to sell me... which I respect).

At Siebel the experience was VERY different. After being promised a free trial with registration (not free use as at Salesforce, just a free trial for 30 days) I filled out the form and then was greeted with a message -- "thanks, a Siebel salesperson will call you to set up your free trial." It has been two days and I have received no call.

Big Software and small business don't mix

Sure, Siebel and SAP and IBM would all like to sell to the small and medium sized business market. After all, SMBs employ over 50% of all workers in the US. But their techniques simply don't work. A big company will dedicate a team to evaluating SFA offerings, spend months coming up with a recommendation, and spend millions implementing a product. I on the other hand want to make a decision tomorrow and start using the product the minute after I make that decision. Salesforce.com has the right stuff for small business. Siebel isn't even in the game.

Will I ever trust analysts again?

Before I believe anything more that the Aberdeen Group has to say I want them to fully disclose their sources of financing. How much are Siebel and IBM paying for this hit piece on Salesforce.com? Why is it that journalists still believe such people?