Siebel To Use Microsoft's .Net TechnologySiebel To Use Microsoft's .Net Technology

Microsoft and Siebel Systems Inc. on Monday unveiled an expanded alliance that will put Siebel's customer-relationship management software on Microsoft's .Net platform.

Under the terms of the deal, engineers from the two companies will help make sure Siebel's programs run on .Net, and Microsoft will pitch in on developing Siebel's Universal Application Network, an effort to make it easier for businesses to integrate enterprise applications. The companies will jointly develop, market, sell, and support related software.

"This is about application simplicity, application integration, and reduced cost of ownership," Siebel CEO and chairman Tom Siebel told attendees at the company's user conference in Los Angeles.

The three-year deal is an expansion of existing relationships between the two companies and will amount to an investment of more than $250 million, Siebel said in the keynote address. More than 100 engineers will work on the effort in joint labs located at both companies' headquarters.

The deal isn't exclusive, and Siebel also will continue to pursue other technologies that compete with .Net, such as Sun Microsystems' Java 2 Enterprise Edition.

Siebel said the relationship with Microsoft will help "dramatically lower" the cost of deploying his company's CRM applications, citing one study that found a 60% reduction in the cost of integration using a combination of Siebel's soon-to-be-available Universal Application Network middleware and Microsoft's BizTalk Server. That kind of savings, he said, could even spur demand for Siebel's products, which sagged in the quarter ended Sept. 30, with license revenues down 34% to $126.8 million, compared with the same period a year ago. "I think the market impact for Siebel Systems could be quite positive in the short- or medium-term," Siebel said.

Microsoft chief software architect Bill Gates said an added benefit is that business will be able to integrate more kinds of data and applications, leading to cheaper, better connectivity. For instance, data sharing will become easier between a Microsoft desktop application and Siebel's desktop and server software. Among the joint development work planned by the companies are tighter links between Microsoft's Office applications and Siebel Smart Client and eBusiness software, a "new generation" Siebel client application, and finer tuning of Siebel's software for Microsoft's underlying operating systems and related technologies.

Look for more .Net-affirming alliances of the type Microsoft struck with Siebel. "Every month, you will see more relationships around .Net," Gates said. In fact, Microsoft's part-technology, part-marketing strategy to build industry support around its .Net technologies has a code-name of its own--Rolling Thunder.