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Tom Siebel: Paid to be paranoid

Tags:
SAP,
Microsoft,
Software,
Satmetrix

Alorie Gilbert ZDNet US

Published: 22 May 2002 13:12 BST

There are inconveniences, and then there is loss of privacy. There's a difference, right?

Hello. We're doing everything but body cavity searches. We're doing strip searches. This is not inconvenience. These are major public humiliations, embarrassments -- and physically invasive.

So how far is too far?

We're suggesting that for people who are criminals and who violate the law that the government should be able to associate the information across agencies. I don't think anyone is going to repeal the Bill of Rights. Whatever policies the government deems proper for the sharing or partitioning of information, we can help enforce those policies and solve them. The public policy issue is different from the technology problem. We're just solving the technology problem.

CRM software is obviously a very competitive market. Your recent tussle with SAP over some Siebel ads that ran in Europe is evidence of that. Are you worried about SAP gaining on you?

I'm worried about everyone gaining on us every minute of every day. Are you kidding? This is what I do for a living. This is what I'm paid to do. I have to worry about everybody who is either in my market or thinking about entering my market. I stay awake at night worrying about it.

What are you doing to maintain a lead in the market, besides mudslinging?

I didn't do any mudslinging. Have you seen this ad? Here it is. Look at this. "Bayer runs Siebel. Deutsche Telekom runs Siebel. Nestle runs Siebel. IBM runs Siebel." These are all Siebel customers. At the bottom it says, "Siebel CRM is the #1 CRM company installed in the SAP installed base." This is a statement of fact.

Didn't a German court order Siebel to stop running these ads?

The German court ruled that this ad -- without any discussion of whether one of these statements was true and without allowing us to present our case in court -- represents unfair competition in Germany. They have ruled that every impression this runs will be a 250,000 euro fine and six months in jail for the manager of Siebel in Germany. Now I ask you, what is going on here? Do you think maybe this German market is not as open as some other markets around the world? Do you think maybe the secretary of commerce might be interested in this kind of stuff? I think that maybe that's what's going on here. I think we might have a market that might be a little closed.

So, what am I doing about competitors? I'm building the best products in the world and making sure my customers are the most satisfied in the world. This is what I'm doing.

I must get e-mails every day from Salesforce.com (a CRM rival) that says they've stolen customers from Siebel and can save companies bundles of money by offering CRM in a hosted format that is far cheaper than owning and maintaining the software. What do you make of them?

I think they're not a factor in the marketplace. They don't have meaningful market share. The company's CEO left; its CFO left; and they can't get financing.

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