BT, Siebel offer low-cost CRM to small business

Small and medium-size businesses in the U.K. are being offered low-cost customer relationship management software through a deal between British Telecommunications and Siebel Systems.

Siebel CRM OnDemand is a Web-based service, charged at a fixed price of £50 ($86) per user per month with no minimum seat number, Siebel’s Europe, Middle East and Africa marketing manager Neil Morgan said Tuesday. It is aimed at SMBs and divisions of larger companies, and can either be used on its own, over the Web or integrated into a company’s existing on-site Siebel applications.

“This is an opportunity for us to reach a new audience. CRM has always been seen as complex and expensive but now it’s easy to use and costs from £50 a month,” Morgan said. Setting up the custom screens is done using the same method used to customize Yahoo Inc.’s My Yahoo service, he said, and will only take a few hours for a user to get used to.

The OnDemand product is available on its own, or as an extension to BT Contact Central, a contact center product that is also based on Siebel software, BT said.

The BT-branded service is being beta-tested and will be available from early 2004.

BT is itself a major Siebel customer, Morgan said. “They’re our largest European customer and have been for five or six years. Any time you talk to a BT call center, chances are they’re using our software,” he said.