Salesforce vs Siebel – Match!

Salesforce has been holding its position at the tops of most CRM comparison lists, and it tends to win out in most of the comparison pieces where it’s pitted against specific other titles too. Blow for blow, Salesforce, while of course not perfect, seems to have the right combination of stuff to beat any gimmick or off the wall tactic other CRM solutions implement to try to undercut it. Will this be the case in Salesforce vs Siebel? CRM has rapidly become one of the core components in business, being a central storage and retrieval medium for so much business information that almost no department in a company doesn’t use the established framework. SaaS has made rich, diverse CRM solutions practical and affordable to publish and market. So, every big software designer out there has put their hat in the ring, including Oracle, with their Siebel CRM. Well, we all know of Oracle’s fame in database technologies and server frameworks, so they seem like a natural company to blossom in the burgeoning SaaS industry, especially with something so database oriented as CRM. So, in the comparison of Salesforce vs Siebel … this one’s a closer fight than others. Most other CRM creators don’t have the archiving and data storage legacy that Oracle has, so they’re at an advantage over Sun or Microsoft. At least, in theory. Well, Siebel has the basic functions, with customized reports and forms, easy to use GUI, quick setup and a plethora of automation capacities. It can be easily branded and shaped to meet needs, and since it is Oracle, it does have an exposed standard API for building on functionality. Obviously, it doesn’t support the variety of databases that Salesforce can, sticking entirely to Oracle’s proprietary infrastructure. That’s a mild mark against it, considering it limits the diversity of servers and operating systems on which Siebel can be deployed, and also puts a mild cramp on retrieval as well. Also, it does lack an analog to the app exchange Salesforce has, meaning that you’re limited to extensions provided by Oracle, or that you create on your own through the extended API layer. It does have its advantages, offering more scalable space solutions and cheaper starter packages, as Salesforce is a bit costly to get into, admittedly. It also has outstanding support, as well. Unfortunately, the lack of easy integration with third party SaaS solutions, the lack of an app exchange analog, and mildly less customization capacity do actually leave Siebel at a bit of a disadvantage to Salesforce. But, let me say this much. As I said, Salesforce can be expensive, and there are situations where a company can’t afford Salesforce. That eliminates it from practical choices in that situation, and a good alternative is indeed Siebel. Migration to Salesforce later, if need be, is possible too thanks to Salesforce supporting Oracle data formats with minimal effort needed. So, ultimately, in the battle of Salesforce vs Siebel, Salesforce is mostly still on top, but one great thing here is that while Salesforce clinically wins, Siebel is an excellent choice when Salesforce can’t be.