Siebel Systems Expands Universal Application Network with New Industry-Specific Integration Applications
SAN MATEO, Calif.--April 15, 2003--Siebel Systems, Inc. , a leading provider of multichannel eBusiness applications software, today announced that it has increased its commitment to Universal Application Network (UAN) with the delivery of 50 new industry-specific integration applications in UAN 2.0. Universal Application Network is a unique, standards-based solution for end-to-end business process integration designed to help organizations dramatically reduce the cost, risk, and complexity of application integration. Today's announcement builds on the success of UAN by offering new, innovative products, a growing partner ecosystem, and expanded leadership with the appointment of Nimish Mehta as Group Vice President, UAN.
Integration of disparate systems and processes is the number one priority of CIOs today and has become the single largest IT expenditure, consuming up to 50 percent of a typical company's IT budget. In 2003, organizations are projected to spend over $90 billion on integration, including nearly $7 billion on integration software. Current integration approaches are often complex, highly customized, and costly because they require organizations to build custom, point-to-point interfaces between applications.
"Business process management and data integration across heterogeneous environments are among the biggest challenges now facing CIOs," said Steve Bonadio, Senior Program Director, META Group, Inc. "The role of corporate IT continues to shift from application development to application configuration and integration, and as such, IT organizations must seek integration solutions that automate and optimize their unique, industry-specific business processes. Over the next few years, one of the leading metrics for IT will be its capacity to integrate heterogeneous applications within and external to the enterprise, while leveraging emerging Web Services standards to simplify integration, lower total cost of ownership, and enable flexibility with respect to change."
To squarely address the complex application integration problem facing companies today, Siebel Systems led the development of UAN with leading integration server vendors and systems integrators. First released in October 2002, UAN leverages the latest industry standards based on XML and Web Services and is the first and only suite of packaged integration applications that enables organizations to deploy end-to-end business processes spanning multiple applications.
New Industry-Specific Integration Applications
With the release of UAN 2.0, Siebel Systems now provides 50 new integration applications tailored specifically to the unique needs of nine vertical industries including automotive, communications, media, energy, financial services, insurance, healthcare, high technology, and manufacturing. Through out-of-the-box industry-specific integration processes such as Automotive Dealer Service Information Management, Communications Bill Adjustment Management, and Financial Services Account Origination Management, UAN helps companies create a customer-centric view across all lines of business.
For example, telecommunications service providers need to integrate business processes across dozens or even hundreds of applications, including business support systems, operational support systems, and billing systems to increase revenues and lower operational costs while simultaneously providing superior customer service. Infonet Services Corporation, a provider of managed data communication services, uses UAN to configure and capture customer orders and to integrate multiple applications including Siebel eBusiness Applications, ERP systems, and custom-built billing and inventory systems.
"UAN minimizes our need to custom-build strategic processes and connections and leverages proven best practices to dramatically reduce the risk, complexity, and cost of integration," said Jim deMin, Technical Manager of Infonet Services Corporation. "Infonet is leveraging industry-specific UAN Integration Applications to improve processes, lower integration costs and improve quality of information as we enable our customer-facing business process. The integration applications provided by Siebel Systems will enable us to accomplish our business objectives of continually enhancing service quality, revenue generation, and cost containment."
Continued Market Momentum
Siebel Systems and its partners, including the top integration server vendors, leading systems integrators, and industry-leading software providers, have continued to expand their commitment to building the UAN ecosystem. These partners include Accenture, BEA Systems, BearingPoint, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Deloitte Consulting, IBM, Microsoft, TIBCO, SeeBeyond, Vitria, and webMethods. Together, these companies have established dedicated UAN sales teams, have created UAN Competency Centers worldwide, and have trained more than 300 consultants on UAN, enabling companies around the world to take advantage of the compelling UAN integration solution. Through these efforts, Siebel Systems and its partners are now working with more than 20 UAN charter customers across multiple industries and geographic regions.
To further its UAN initiative, Siebel Systems also recently added Nimish Mehta as Group Vice President, UAN. With more than 20 years of executive management experience in the software industry, Nimish brings the skills and expertise to continue to drive Siebel Systems' success in the packaged application integration market.
"Universal Application Network has generated substantial market momentum," said David Schmaier, Executive Vice President for Siebel Systems. "UAN continues to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of application integration for our customers. Building upon this success, we have brought Nimish Mehta on board, and his vast industry knowledge, proven leadership abilities, and commitment to customer success will help us to bring UAN to the next level."
The UAN Integration Application library now includes more than 100 horizontal and vertical integration applications built by Siebel Systems to run on the leading integration server vendor platforms. For more information about UAN 2.0, please visit http://www.siebel.com/pr/uan.
About Siebel Systems
Siebel Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of eBusiness applications software, enabling corporations to sell to, market to, and serve customers across multiple channels and lines of business. With more than 3,500 customers worldwide, Siebel Systems provides organizations with a proven set of industry-specific best practices, CRM applications, and business processes, empowering them to consistently deliver superior customer experiences and establish more profitable customer relationships. Siebel Systems' sales and service facilities are located in more than 28 countries.
Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risk or uncertainties. Future operating results of Siebel Systems may differ from the results discussed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements due to factors that include, but are not limited to, risks associated with customer relations, such as the availability of Siebel Systems' products and services, customer implementation of products and services, relationships with customers, third-party vendors and systems integrators, concentration of revenues in a relatively small number of customers, existence of errors or defects in products, ability to successfully manage growth, significant current and expected additional competition and the need to continue to expand product distribution and services offerings. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of Siebel Systems are included in Siebel Systems' Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at www.sec.gov. Siebel Systems assumes no obligation to update the information in this press release.
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