Shake-Up At SiebelShake-Up At Siebel

Siebel Systems Inc.'s sudden decision to fire CEO Mike Lawrie and replace him with board member George Shaheen has raised more questions than it has answered regarding the vendor's future.

Lawrie was ousted shortly after the customer-relationship-management software company's disclosure earlier this month that its first-quarter revenue would fall well short of expectations. How Shaheen's leadership will differ from Lawrie's was far from certain based on a conference call with analysts last week. Shaheen's rallying cry sounded strikingly similar to the strategy outlined by Lawrie over the past year, when he trumpeted "customer success" as the key to Siebel's future. "We're going to continue to focus sharply and diligently on creating customer value," Shaheen said. Shareholders who convened in New York last week to discuss the company's direction--particularly its plans for its more than $2 billion in cash--didn't hear specifics on that point during the conference call.

The firing of Lawrie has created some confusion for Ken Casey, senior VP of retail banking delivery for Canadian bank ATB Financial. The bank is preparing to deploy a teller system it purchased from Eontec Ltd., which Siebel acquired last year. Casey wonders how the change will affect Siebel's plans to integrate the Eontec technology with its call-center platform, which the bank also uses. "Usually, a change at the top means more than just a change of personality," he says.

Shaheen needs more than a year to execute on plans, AMR Research analyst Laura Preslan writes in an E-mail. "Naming a new CEO undermines [Siebel's] ability to assuage customer and market fears about Siebel's corporate health."