Siebel Taps Motive Software To Improve Usability
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Siebel (Nasdaq: SEBL) has been on a mission to lower the TCO of its applications since last year's release of 7.5.3, a version that concentrated mainly on cost-savings modifications and other user-friendly improvements.
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It features a revamped client architecture, new software for soliciting customer feedback and enhanced analytic and reporting capabilities.
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Company seeks to bolster its ability to offer business intelligence applications through a Web browser.
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Business Objects, an SAP company, unveiled today the next iteration of its business intelligence platform, XI 3.0.Bigger and in some ways better than previous versions, it includes so many features that it may be a bit daunting to some users.Leveraging Business Objects' acquisition of InXight Software in May 2007, XI 3.0 ties together structured information with unstructured information."Now you can read through e-mails, Web pages, and documents to understand text and extract sentiment from text," said Franz Aman, vice president for business intelligence platform, product marketing at Business Objects.Josh Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting, called the ability to include unstructured data a significant improvement in the platform. "It is an acknowledgement that data comes from all kinds of applications and all kinds of formats," he said.The technology parses and organizes unstructured data so that users can apply more traditional, i.e. more statistically-oriented, methods to the data.Greenbaum said that although it is a "somewhat artificial" structure, it does lend itself to data analysis, and he called that an enormous improvement for businesses that have grown so much more complex over the years. "ERP used to be about one activity, closing the books every quarter," he saidTraceability is another key feature in XI 3.0. The technology can trace back the so-called lineage of data in order to give users better insight into how the data was created, what transformation it might have gone through, and whether or not is was merged with another data set.While knowing the lineage of data is a must-have for regulatory and compliance, it is also essential to good business, said Greenbaum, noting that it is a vast improvement over the old days when executives sat around arguing over the data in a single cell in a spreadsheet.The lineage capability is only available to those who buy the optional Business Objects Data Services that combine Data Integrator and Data Quality components.Another significant improvement in the platform is a technology dubbed Polestar that gives non-technical users the ability to do complex searches and to make natural language queries. "You don't have to be a special user with SQL knowledge to find information," said Aman.??However, Greenbaum said that while XI does a good job in elevating the accessibility and comprehensiveness of BI it is also a "bit of a Swiss Army knife." "What haven't they put into this product?" he wondered.Nevertheless, it should also replace all the departmental one-off solutions that are typically floating around a company, according to Greenbaum.While XI 3.0 was in development long before Business Objects was acquired by SAP in January 2007, there are some unique linkages between XI 3.0 and SAP applications, said Aman. For example, XI is more tightly intertwined with the SAP Business Warehouse and offers faster performance when users tap into data that comes from R3 or the Warehouse than if the data was from a non-SAP source.Also, XI can tap into SAP's use of metadata so that if a user in North America searches for Total Revenue, and a user in France is looking for the same information, despite the fact that the French use a phrase other than Total Revenue, both will get back the same information because of the metadata layer.Business Objects 3.0 will be available later in the first quarter. Later in the year, it will also be available as a SaaS offering.
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The software maker is in the midst of a major revamp to its search product. Over the coming weeks, the company will make more changes, including to the engine itself. Whether the changes add up to more eyeballs is an open question.
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(InfoWorld) - Focusing on the global architecture of SOA, IBM on Tuesday is introducing IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform 7.0 for the desktop. The product unveiling features a multitude of integrated products tweaked to the needs of SOA. With the rollout, IBM reasons enterprises need tools to visualize an architecture that has composite applications residing in multiple locations, said Dave Locke, director of offerings marketing at IBM Rational. SOA testing also is a critical component. "We're empowering the A in SOA," Locke said. "We've added functionality to help line-of-business people communicate more effectively with the IT people, so that IT can understand what to implement, and help the implementers, if you will, be more efficient and work as a geographically distributed team," Locke said. IBM's SOA tool rollout addresses the process side of development, said analyst Bola Rotibi of Ovum. "It's about looking at the development process within the context of the business," she said. "It's not just bring tools out for the sake of tools." As part of the rollout, Rational Unified Process, which provides process guidance, now will cover SOA governance. IBM envisions governance as understanding what teams are doing in an SOA as well as assisting with regulatory compliance.Â  The 7.0 desktop tools, which are based on the Eclipse platform, complement previously released server-side products such as IBM Rational ClearQuest 7.0. Among the tools being upgraded, all bearing the name IBM Rational at the beginning, include: * Application Developer for WebSphere Software, featuring an IDE for developing SOA, Java and portal applications. * Software Architect, for model-driven development of SOA, J2EE and portal applications. New models are featured for SOA. * Software Modeler, a visual modeling tool for architects, systems analysts and designers to ensure that specifications, architectures and designs are clearly defined. It is based on Unified Modeling Language 2.1. * Systems Developer, a systems design and development tool for building hardware and software systems. This product adds SysML (Systems Modeling Language) support. * Functional Tester, for functional and regression testing. * Functional Tester Plus, for teams to test applications. * Manual Tester, for manual test authoring and execution. * Professional Bundle, featuring desktop tools for constructing and testing applications for Windows and Linux and testing of .Net applications. * Data and Application Modeling Bundle, featuring Data Architect and Software Modeler. Other elements of the rollout include integration between Rational team and desktop products to accommodate SOA. IBM Rational RequisitePro, for requirements management, has been integrated with WebSphere Business Modeler, enabling requirements to be captured within a model. RequisitePro also integrates with Software Architect, which visualizes an architecture including business workflow. Also, a Rational Method Composer Plug-in allows for integration with SOA governance infrastructure. IBM with the desktop tools is extending support for integrating components from SAP, Siebel, and Oracle applications as well. This support is being added to the Performance Tester and Functional Tester products in the IBM Rational line. As part of the rollout, IBM is announcing availability of IBM Rational Elite Support for Eclipse, a previously detailed program providing enterprise-level support for the Eclipse open source development framework. IBM's 7.0 tools are available now, except for Performance Tester, which ships in the first quarter of 2007.
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Siebel unveiled &quot;Chapter 2&quot; of its CRM strategy this week in an effort to revitalise its sagging fortunes. Siebel has seen declining revenue and fierce competition from high-end rivals such as SAP, as well as from smaller companies such as Salesforce.
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Business software company Siebel  Systems Inc. SEBL.O on Wednesday said it expects  fourth-quarter sales and profit to beat analysts' estimates,  boosted by higher-than-expected licensing revenue.
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A software tools maker is staking its future on helping developers prepare for streamlined coding for Web services (define) as well as Avalon, the graphics display component in the works for Longhorn, Microsoft&#39;s next version of Windows.
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In a bid to revive its flagging fortunes, Siebel Systems plans to create customized software packages designed to reach the 75% of the CRM market now unavailable to it.
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New Siebel Systems Inc. CEO J. Michael Lawrie Monday opened Siebel User Week with a declaration that CRM is no longer about developing the best software, but is a strategy that delivers business outcomes.
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Demandware service designed to help midsize firms open shop online as fast as with a hosted service, but with more customization.
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An emerging trend in application management software is the capability to view distributed applications, deployed on many tiers, as a single entity. Putting the new approach to work, management software vendor Motive will launch three products to help manage distributed applications: Motive Profile, Motive Triage, and Motive Resolution.
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Business software maker Siebel Systems Inc.  on Wednesday reported a quarterly profit, after a year-earlier net loss, driven by a healthy rise in license revenue.
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Company is developing software to help big media companies integrate social networking and community into their Web sites.
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New features of the Apex programming language will allow customers more connections with other vendors' applications.
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With version 6 of its OnDemand product behind it, Siebel (Nasdaq: SEBL) is looking toward the next phase of its hosted-product development strategy. As part of its long-term plan, Siebel is getting set to deliver its entire enterprise suite "in the OnDemand form factor," Bruce Cleveland, senior vice president and general manager of Siebel OnDemand small and midsize business unit, tells CRM Daily.