Salesnet Tells UpShot Customers: Come To UsSalesnet Tells UpShot Customers: Come To Us

Hosted CRM specialist Salesnet fired back at Siebel Systems Inc. on Friday, offering "refuge" to customers of UpShot Corp., which Siebel plans to acquire.

Salesnet unveiled a Trade-Up Choice Program that offers UpShot customers a "free migration and product discounts" to move onto Salesnet's online customer-relationship-management solution.

On Wednesday, Siebel announced plans to acquire UpShot, a hosted CRM vendor, for $50 million in cash plus as much as $20 million in earn-outs over the next two years. The companies plan to close the deal in November.

"Salesnet wants to provide a choice and incentive for UpShot customers to move on their own terms to an online CRM solution that is tried, tested, and true," said Mike Doyle, chairman and CEO of Salesnet, in a statement.

The Salesnet program will let UpShot customers move to Salesnet's CRM solution for 10% less than they're currently paying with a free "quick-start" migration service, the company says. The service will include data migration, custom-report creation, user training, and implementation of Salesnet's workflow for sales.

According to Doyle, Siebel's pending acquisition of UpShot will involve the merger of two "very different product lines," and the movement of UpShot customers "onto the new, and as yet unreleased and unproven, Siebel CRM OnDemand product," which will "handcuff customers" by dictating migration terms, timeframes, and product architecture.

The Salesnet Trade-Up Choice Program will be available until Dec. 15.

Siebel senior VP Mark Sunday, who's running the OnDemand product line, says the planned UpShot acquisition is part of the company's overall "CRM for Everyone" strategy, and is being done not only to provide a "kick start" to Siebel's hosting efforts, but also to provide the company with a base of employees with experience in the CRM-hosting business. Sunday says Siebel plans to retain 100 UpShot employees.

Sunday says Siebel will support UpShot customers on their existing product line indefinitely. "At some point in the future," he adds, "a natural migration will occur as we have an upgrade of Siebel OnDemand and an upgrade of the UpShot product, and they ultimately will converge into a single offering."