In the fall of 2001, business software pioneer Thomas M. Siebel was giddy as he looked ahead. Sure, the recession was hurting. But he claimed his company, Siebel Systems Inc. -- the leader in software for managing sales forces and customer-service departments -- would be more resilient than its competitors. ``Everybody is going to be naked,'' Siebel said with relish. ``We're going to find out who are the dilettantes. We're going to find out who are the scumbags, and who are the sleazeballs. Everybody is going to be exposed for who they are. It's going to be a remarkable time.'' Two months later, he confidently predicted that the high-tech downturn was about to end. He could be certain, he said, because of the forecasting capabilities in his own software. Well, both Tom Siebel and his software get failing grades for prognostication. The tech industry is still mired in slow growth, and Siebel Systems, software's highest flier in the go-go '90s, has tumbled farther than its ``dilettante'' rivals. Revenues last year tumbled 22%, to $1.6 billion, compared with a drop of only 2% for the overall corporate-applications-software industry. In the first quarter, Siebel's revenues dropped 30%, to $333 million. Siebel's stock price, at $8.50, is off a staggering 94% from its peak in 2000 of $119. It wasn't just the economy that hobbled Siebel Systems. A 2001 product upgrade was so difficult to install that customers were reluctant to buy it. The company's reputation suffered from bad publicity about its customer-satisfaction record. And it lost ground to corporate-applications leader SAP. In 2002, Siebel Systems' share of the customer-management market it helped pioneer slipped from 29% to 23%, according to Gartner Dataquest. No. 2 SAP gained ...
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...ness-software maker Siebel Systems has seen revenues slide 44% over the past two years. Here's a look at why, and at its prospects going forward. COMPLEXITY INCOMPATIBILITY PROBLEM Customers complain Its applications don't work Siebel's software is easily with rival software complex and hard to that handles financials and install. Major projects human resources. can take a year to com- plete. FIX A team of 60 consultants New integration technologies helps customers plan improve things, but rivals that projects, but something make full suites of products must still be done to have an advantage. simplify the products. TARNISHED REPUTATION PROBLEM It has been accused of overstating customer satisfaction and was slammed by the SEC for a financial disclosure violation. FIX It hasn't adequately addressed customer satisfaction issues and is stingy with financial information.
This book details the “adventures” of Jim Barton, the head of Loan Operations for IVK, Inc. Barton was the head of Loan Operations until his boss, CEO Carl Williams, asks him to become the CIO in order to help turn the IT department around. The only disadvantage is that Jim does not have any kind of background or extensive knowledge of IT.
A great deal of information was covered this week such as, the necessity in which businesses need to effectively plan and set objectives, the strategies utilized and how they are executed to obtains results, and how managements decisions can potentially affect those results. Although each topic covered was found to be interesting and informational, there was something in particular that struck a chord, which was how business establishments have to be flexible and adaptable and in many instances plan and change their strategies of today, in order to keep up with the evolving technology of tomorrow. Something that one often thinks about is how individuals use technology today and how companies that provide that technology are adapting. For instance, author Richard Daft of the textbook, Management, 12th ed. brings to light the potential issues that Intel is facing explaining “As another example of an external threat, Intel, whose microprocessors power most PCs, is being hurt by the decline in demand for personal computers as more people turn to tablets and smartphones.” (Daft, 2016, pg. 259). After reading this, one wanted to take a deep look into what it is exactly that Intel intends to do to overcome this obstacle and found some
Andy Grove cofounded Intel in the late 1960s and helped it become the leading memory chipmaker and then the leading microprocessor chip manufacturer in the world. Andy Grove’s leadership through two significant challenges resulted in drastic change to the company that resulted in their continued success. Through these challenges, Andy Grove realized that companies face Strategic Inflection Points (SIP) or times when the company will ...
This paper will profile Jeff Hawkins, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for PalmOne, Inc. examining qualities that Mr. Hawkins exhibits that make him influential leader. The paper will also examine details of the business strategy that make this man an exceptional innovator and his contribution to eBusiness technology.
The report of Robert Reich: “Why the Rich are getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer,” is an eye opener and a warning for society regarding unemployment that it will be facing and is currently facing due to a lack of technology and education. It clearly articulates that the jobs of routine producers and in-person servers have vanished totally as modern techniques have replaced them. The author has stated that the only people whose jobs are on the rise are symbol analysts. As stated in the report, symbol analysts are the real problem solvers. Their skills are highly in demand worldwide because they are the ones who first analyze the problem and then solve it.
1.0 IntroductionIn this report I will be concentrating on the failure of software systems. To understand why software systems fail we need to understand what are software systems. Software systems are a type of information system. This is because a software system is basically a means for hardware to process information. Flynn’s definition of an information system is:"An information system provides procedures to record and make available information, concerning part of an organization, to assist organization-related activities."Humans have been processing information manually for thousands of years, but with the vast increase of demand for knowledge this century has meant that a new method of information processing has been needed. Software systems have provided a new means that is much faster and efficient.
Siebel would like to close on a successful sale of their SFA system to Q&R/FleetBoston as their sales figures for the quarter pretty much depend on this one sale to Q&R. It has to convince the executive board at the company about the superiority of it products over its close competitors in order to achieve this goal.
Proof Fahey’s take on all the above mentioned issues is that the company needs a new e-commerce platform which will integrate the functioning of different product units and project them as one unified unit to the customer.
2: Finkle, Todd A., and Michael L. Mallin. "Steve Jobs and Apple, Inc." Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies 16.8 (2010): 49+. General OneFile. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.
To further shore up his "IT as commodity" theory, Carr cites the fact that major technology vendors, such as Microsoft and IBM, are positioning themselves as "IT utilities," companies that control the provision of business applications over "the grid." Couple this IT-as-utility trend with the rapidly decreasing cost of processing power, data storage and transmission, and even the most "cutting-edge IT capabilities quickly become available to all."
"Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up" (Belasco & Stayer, 1993). Is the concept of “too big to fail" an accurate term in today’s economy, or does it depend on a company’s ability to undergo change and reinvent itself? More than a decade ago, it seemed almost impossible that the seventh largest company in the Unites States, Enron, would decline so quickly. As change agent, I will analyze the demise of Enron, conceptualize the reasoning behind their failure to undergo the change, and evaluate what changes would have had to take place in order to prevent the company from going bankrupt.
During the last decade, we’ve been to the top of the world—during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s—and back down again, when it all fell apart a few years later. But with the bad came the good: The Web forever changed the business world. The following small-business owners are shining examples of how Web-based technologies can be a businessperson’s best friend.
Management: The case of GroupWare technologies. Sloan Management Review,(38) 2 , 11-22. Retrieved October 28, 1999 from EBSCO business search on Galileo: http://www.galileo.gsu.edu
has had a great affect on the software industry. It is a problem that can only
Nathan A. IT ALL ADDED UP TO MORE THAN COMPUTING. Business Builders In Computers [serial online]. January 2000:6-15. Available from: Book Collection: Nonfiction, Ipswich, MA. Accessed January 30, 2014.