It runs on a database server linked via a wide-area network to sales people in branches using PCs. This product was followed in 1996 by the Siebel Service Enterprise, designed to automate the customer service function. Compaq Computer Corp. Although Siebel Systems has far outpaced its rivals, including Aurum Software, Dendrite, and Brock International, it cannot afford to slow down. The drive, as always, is to develop new products that are better, faster, more functional, and Internet enabled. Siebel Systems is expanding its global reach into Europe, Asia, and North and South America.
Technical challenges loom large.
Very large sales organizations typically employ thousands or tens of thousands of people who are geographically dispersed and nomadic. They operate with intermittently connected database sharing that requires data synchronization and replication at the transaction level. Siebel Systems is also aggressively researching software agent technology. The goal is to develop deploy-able virtual sales and buying agents that can interoperate over the Internet as proxies of their handlers. A fundamental challenge is how to engineer the actual behavior of such software agents so they can accurately represent buyers and sellers.