Solution Provider

Microsoft Software: Partnering For Competitive Advantage

Whatever your business is, wherever it takes all information systems and points of contact. Founded in 1975, (Nasdaq: MSFT) is you, Microsoft .NET Enterprise Software can Microsoft addresses these needs with the the worldwide leader in software, services, and help you remain connected and productive, Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server platform as Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of offering the highest dependability and the well as by continuing to drive presence in the products and services designed to empower best investment economics available today. It market with leading partners such as Siebel. people through great software – any time, any provides innovative, rock-solid technology in place, and on any device. support of the age-old pillars that drive busi- Microsoft and Accenture – ness success and value creation: Demonstrating the Power of Web • Connected. Information when, where, Services Solutions for CRM • Extending sales capabilities to and how you want it. Connect and When your people need information – in the field technicians through integration integrate internal and external parts of field, with customers, or wherever they’re with Microsoft MapPoint, the Office the business while leveraging previous working – can they find it quickly and eas- mapping and data visualization tool; IT Investments. ily? When your customers are looking for a and • Productive. Less down time and real-time and unique packaging of business •Providing superior customer services confusion. Technology that enables services, can your technology platform sup- through integration of Siebel with the business to focus on business to port that capability? Web services promises advanced instant messaging capabilities. operate more efficiently and effectively to deliver all that, and more. Accenture is – from individual employees to overall bringing innovative Web services solutions More than stand-alone solutions, these Web business units. to companies in every industry today. services can also be integrated with other • Dependable. Reliable and scalable Web services are a set of communications CRM packages, enterprise systems, and systems and processes. Technology standards and technical protocols that allow legacy applications. that delivers 24/7 and an industry distributed applications to interact over the partner dedicated to developing more Internet or internal networks. Web services Business and Technology innovative, cost-effective, and depend- are making application and process integra- Benefits of Web Services able software. tion more effective, and are also connecting Integrating Microsoft and Siebel • Best Economics. Investments that business processes within and between The solutions within the Accenture pay off. Technology that business and companies to create new sources of revenue Communications Solutions Web Services IT leaders all see value in and deploy and to bring new products and services to Showcase demonstrate many of the impor- creates the best business value for your market faster. However, companies are fac- tant business and technology benefits of IT investment to drive gains. ing a number of hurdles in their Web ser- Web services, including platform/vendor vices implementation efforts, including independence, more effective integration, Connecting Customers with CRM technical infrastructure, security, reliability and lower entry costs. Most important, CRM applications and solutions are designed and service quality. Accenture can help. these solutions meet many of the strategic to manage customer information and offer Recently named by a leading industry ana- business and technological imperatives better service across all customer touch points lyst as one of the premiere Web services solu- facing companies today: – the sales, marketing, service organizations – tion providers today, Accenture is leading the • The growing need to securely incorpo- to ultimately drive new revenues, retain and way in cost-effective and business-ready Web rate net-sourced applications and grow an existing customer base, and increase services solutions that are helping clients processes into existing business envi- efficiency and profits. meet these challenges. To demonstrate the ronments and processes; Most businesses currently manage power of Web services in the CRM space, the • Effectively connecting, in a cost- customer relationships with multiple informa- Accenture Innovation Center has created sev- effective way, organizations, devices, tion systems, making it difficult to fully under- eral Web services that can be used to connect systems, and processes, each with dif- stand the customer's needs or provide new Siebel applications and Microsoft applications: ferent methods for connectivity; and opportunities for increasing business profit. To • Improving salesforce effectiveness by • Connecting systems that span organi- gain benefits from CRM applications, it is integrating Siebel and zations quickly and flexibly to better> essential to have an integrated solution across applications; support business processes. >>

Defying the Limits • 21 Solution Provider

>> These Accenture Web services solutions can If the technician recognizes a possible up- Accenture works closely with its clients to deliver increased business value through sell opportunity, this application presents help them envision and then implement higher customer satisfaction, faster time to options and supporting information to the their Web services solutions, setting benefit market, reduced costs, and greater efficiencies. technician. If a sale is made, the technician targets and holding itself accountable for can then create and issue an order in real reaching them. To help meet the needs of Accenture Communications Solutions time. In effect, this solution turns field clients asking for interoperable solutions Web Services Showcase technicians into an instant extension of the across platforms, Accenture is aligned with a Accenture Communications Solutions Web salesforce. New efficiencies are created, as variety of organizations including Microsoft, Services Showcase demonstrates three power- well. Technicians will no longer have to ask Avanade, HP, and Siebel. ful applications of using Web services to inte- members of the salesforce to re-enter up-sell grate Siebel applications with Microsoft appli- requests received while working in the field. Demonstrating the Scalability of cations and technologies. a Microsoft-Siebel CRM Solution Siebel and Interactive Messaging CIOs are under tremendous pressure to Microsoft Office and Siebel Integration Services Integration reduce costs and deliver increased business Today, salesforce effectiveness is often ham- In this solution, Web services are used to inte- value through their technology investments. pered simply because the most common busi- grate Interactive Messaging Services (IMS), The imperative to cut costs is one of the rea- ness applications cannot speak to one another. an Accenture instant messaging asset, with sons why running Siebel applications on the The Microsoft Office and Siebel integration Siebel. IMS is a powerful way to provide cus- Microsoft platform is becoming an increas- solution lets a sales representative enter tomers with real-time help for their ques- ingly attractive choice. Microsoft offers a customer information in a tions, while simulating interaction with a price-performance value proposition that is spreadsheet and then dynamically transfer customer service representative. difficult to ignore. data to Siebel in real time. The sales represen- This solution supports more effective trou- At the same time, CIOs feel another kind of tative can also retrieve from Siebel real-time bleshooting of service and equipment prob- pressure: to “do it right the first time.” data, such as product and pricing lists. By lems, and also assists with the scheduling of Although the cost-savings of the Microsoft leveraging familiar Microsoft Office applica- service appointments. The integration of platform are compelling, executives also want tions and custom-built Web services, a mobile Siebel and IMS through Web services not only proof that the platform is scalable and reliable salesforce can more effectively utilize the allows customers to get instant information – that it can support their most demanding wealth of CRM data contained in its Siebel sys- about the status of their orders, but also pro- performance and business needs. tem to create and issue orders with speed. vides proactive notification when an order Thanks to data derived from a rigorous status changes. These results provide long- testing approach in a controlled situation, Microsoft MapPoint .NET and term benefits for the customer in terms of using real company data and real sales trans- Siebel Integration shorter cycle times to resolve service issues as actions for a full business day, Accenture Consider the challenges of a field technician well as order provisioning. Additionally, this can help support a company’s decision negotiating a day’s or week’s worth of solution helps companies to pursue cost sav- regarding CRM solutions on a Siebel- appointments. And then consider the missed ings by taking care of common customer con- Microsoft architecture. With a successful opportunities when a sales opportunity with a cerns, thus decreasing use of more expensive track record of having demonstrated the customer arises for the technician, but not contact center interactions. scalability of Siebel 7.5.2 on SQL Server 2000 enough information is there to close the deal. for up to 8,000 concurrent users, Accenture‘s Through the integration of Siebel and Delivering Web Services Value Siebel at Scale Benchmarking Tool can now MapPoint .NET Web services, this solution The Accenture Communications Solutions be used by companies to demonstrate the shows how a list of daily appointments, Web Services Showcase demonstrates that, viability of a Siebel and Microsoft solution customer needs, as well as maps and step-by- with the right business models, Web services using their own data. step directions from one appointment to can allow organizations today to: another, are seamlessly delivered to the tech- • Leverage IT budgets more effectively; Scalability of the Siebel Solution nician’s mobile device or tablet PC through the •Reduce time to delivery; The pioneering work of the Accenture integration of location data from Siebel and the • Enable new revenue-generating services; Communications Solutions Siebel at Scale mapping technology of MapPoint .NET. • Improve collaboration with partners. Benchmarking Tool was done in collaboration

22 • crmproject.com with a global telecommunications provider initiating The team used Siebel’s Enterprise Application Steve Ballmer a Siebel salesforce transformation project. Integration (EAI) component to simulate interfaces; Chief Executive Officer Because of the mission-critical nature of this pro- although no back-office system was used, timing ject, Accenture worked with the client on a proof of and latency of expected interfaces were included in Chairman of the Board and concept for the solution, demonstrating the viability the test. The test included the configuration of key Chief Software Architect of the Microsoft architecture using HP servers. The user workflows as well as workflows used for simu- John Connors following were key success factors for the demon- lated interfaces. Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer stration of the scalability of the Siebel solution: The Siebel at Scale initiative used 10 application Microsoft Corporation •A realistic testing environment. Unlike stan- servers, each supporting 800 concurrent users; this One Microsoft Way dard performance benchmarks, Accenture‘s allowed for a total of 8,000 concurrent users. The Redmond, WA 98052-6339 Siebel at Scale initiative tested real transac- total number of transactions executed successfully Phone 425.882.8080 tions and real data. per test grew as the number of concurrent users was Fax 425.936.7329 www.microsoft.com •Realistic salesforce performance requirements. scaled up. Over 220,000 transactions were completed For the scalability test, the team realistically in the four-hour window of the final test of 8,000 configured Siebel 7.5.2 to provide the com- users. The majority of business transactions were ☎ pany’s look and feel, simulating a day in a life executed via Virtual LoadRunner Users in subsecond Ernie Lou of a salesperson using all required transac- time. Seventy percent of transaction response times Phone 425.703.8119 [email protected] tions. Specifically, the test represented a real- were under one second at the upper level of users. istic business throughput for one full business Also, the manual users had a positive user experi- day in a three- to four-hour execution window. ence while at full load, with no significant delay •A viable data strategy. Using the telecommu- upon application click. nication company’s existing data as a starting The test results demonstrate the overall scalability point, the Siebel at Scale initiative “cleansed of the platform. As a result of this test, the global and grew” both the data and data relation- telecommunications provider accepted the proposed ships. This data strategy allowed the perfor- Siebel, Microsoft, and HP platform, delivered by the mance testing to be executed using a data- experienced Accenture team. With Accenture, this base that mimicked the client’s anticipated client will now be able to implement with confidence data type and data volume. the architecture whose scalability and performance is •A realistic network environment. The Siebel at demonstrated by the Accenture Communications Scale initiative incorporated a realistic network Solutions Siebel at Scale Benchmarking Tool. environment into the overall scalability testing. The Value of Microsoft, Accenture, and Siebel Testing was performed at the Accenture High Alliance Siebel Systems provides world-class Performance Scalability Lab in Cincinnati and on-site application software for customer-centric solutions, at the client’s location. The multilocation nature of increasingly taking advantage of Microsoft’s .NET this project was leveraged to execute transactions over technologies. Microsoft’s flexible and robust a variety of network connections. Incorporating mul- technology platform provides enterprise customers tiple locations and connectivity types into the testing with the lowest total cost of ownership for their environment allowed the Siebel at Scale initiative to Siebel solutions. Avanade, Accenture’s largest simulate the complexities of an actual network. affiliated company, provides a foundation for business solutions with pre-built assets; their focus Testing Methods and Results on Microsoft technologies offers manageable Using Mercury Interactive LoadRunner 7.6, the Siebel high-performance solutions. Together, these at Scale test simulated the transactions of 8,000 virtual alliance partners help clients reduce risk, speed users. In addition, the testing team manually executed implementation, and improve performance, test scripts to capture end-to-end business transaction resulting in solutions for better customer service times and to analyze the experience of the end user. and higher customer satisfaction. ■

Defying the Limits • 23 If you would like more information regarding this company’s products or services, please fill out the Request for Information. If you would like to help us improve our web site, please fill out the Reader Satisfaction Survey.

Request for Information Please send me more information about this company

First name

Last name

Email

I would like more literature from this company My mailing address is

I would like a representative to call me from this company My phone number is

I have a question or comment for this company.

I am submitting this information to Montgomery Research, Inc. while I am Offline Online If you would like more information regarding this company’s products or services, please fill out the Request for Information. If you would like to help us improve our web site, please fill out the Reader Satisfaction Survey.

Reader Satisfaction Survey

First name

Last name

Email

How would you rate this web site? (1 is poor, 5 is very good.)

1 2 3 4 5

What would you like to see more information on (check all that apply)?

Basic 101 explanations of key topics Ideas on how to use technology solutions to run your company better Case studies from different industries Comparisons and review of enterprise software systems Training materials for your staff

How could this web site be improved (check all that apply)?

Make it faster More news and topical articles Improve navigation Provide better ways to interact with authors and/or suppliers Integrate it with training programs and online seminars

How do you prefer to get key information on the impact of new technology (check all that apply)?

Web sites Magazines Online seminars Conferences Expositions Visits from solution providers Advice from people within your company

I am submitting this information to Montgomery Research, Inc. while I am Offline Online

Thank you for your valuable feedback. If you have questions or comments please send us an email at [email protected]