SEBL Siebel Systems (MM)

Siebel Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SEBL), the leading provider of customer-facing solutions, today announced more than 100 million end users worldwide are utilizing its Siebel Self-Service applications. The end users are customers of some of the world's leading communications, energy, financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing organizations. Siebel Self-Service and eBilling solutions have enabled more than 80 organizations, including BT, Sempra Energy, U.S. Department of Education, Verizon Wireless, and many others to provide online customer self-service, which enables their customers to view and pay bills, make changes to their accounts, and order new products and services online. "The rapidly growing popularity of self-service applications is a clear 'win-win' for organizations and their customers," said William Hou, Vice President, Siebel Self-Service. "Customers can perform routine functions easily, quickly and efficiently while organizations benefit from the cost savings and customer goodwill derived from an effective online channel. It's clear that supporting customer needs in Web time is essential to success in today's marketplace and is a must-have capability." Siebel Self-Service has proven successful across the globe in over 20 countries and nine languages, with client organizations achieving superior customer service through self-service as a strategic differentiator. Siebel Systems is the only software vendor to achieve this level of success. Siebel Self-Service complements Siebel CRM, allowing organizations to consistently and effectively manage client relationships across all channels. Paul Hughes, Director of Billing and Payment Application Strategies at Yankee Group, works with leading telecommunications carriers around the globe. "We now see many leading companies that work with Siebel with over 10 million online self-service customers, resulting in better customer loyalty and improved profitability," said Hughes. Customers prefer the convenience of 24x7 service, and carriers reduce the cost of providing live agent-handled calls and mailed paper bills. Hughes predicts that 50 percent of U.S. wireless subscribers will be online self-service users by 2008. The rapid expansion of broadband Internet access and the increasing sophistication of Web usage have made online the preferred channel for many companies. Siebel Self-Service customers are leveraging the solution to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty while reducing the cost of servicing their customers. Companies offering online self-service to their customers are reporting increased loyalty from their online customers and a customer attrition rate that is 80 percent less than that of their offline counterparts. Siebel Self-Service and eBilling Solutions Siebel Self-Service and eBilling solutions are part of Siebel Customer Adaptive Solutions, which encompass all Siebel product and service offerings and enable organizations to better understand and adapt to the needs of their customers in response to rapidly changing business requirements. Siebel Self-Service and eBilling solutions improve the quality of customer care, reduce support costs, and deepen relationships with business and consumer customers. The solutions enable end customers to manage their accounts, research offerings, buy products and services, review bills and statements, initiate and track payments, and resolve issues online from a single starting point at a company's Web site. These Siebel solutions are used by some of the world's leading companies across a variety of industries, including communications, financial services, energy, healthcare, insurance, retail, and manufacturing. About Siebel Systems Siebel Systems is a leading provider of software solutions and services that drive value and loyalty in client-customer relationships, providing best-in-class capabilities in on premise and hosted customer relationship management (CRM), business analytics, and customer data integration. Siebel's new Customer Adaptive Solutions enable organizations to model their customer-centric business processes in order to drive the most effective customer interactions, gain increased insight over time, and continually realign those processes for systemic and consistent improvement. With more than $2 billion in R&D investments, 11-plus years of customer software experience, an extensive global ecosystem of alliance partners, and more than 4,000 customers, Siebel is the proven choice in helping organizations of all types and sizes achieve customer-driven business results. For more information, visit www.siebel.com. For more information on Siebel Systems solutions and services, please visit our Web site: CRM -- http://www.siebel.com/crm; OnDemand Solutions -- http://www.crmondemand.com; Industry CRM -- http://www.siebel.com/industry-crm; Call Center and Service -- http://www.siebel.com/call-center; Sales Force Automation -- http://www.siebel.com/sales-force-automation; Marketing Automation -- http://www.siebel.com/marketing-automation; Business Intelligence -- http://www.siebel.com/business-intelligence; Integration Solutions -- http://www.siebel.com/integration-solutions; CRM Services -- http://www.siebel.com/crm-services 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 our pending merger with Oracle Corporation, 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. Siebel is a trademark of Siebel Systems, Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only.