Taking Care of E-Business: How Today's Market Leaders Are Increasing Revenues, Productivity, and Customer Satisfaction

by Thomas M. Siebel

The founder and CEO of Siebel Systems, the world's leading provider of eBusiness software, reveals the eight principles of eBusiness that companies must master to succeed in today's economy. How is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385502273
• ISBN13: 9780385502276
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Broadway Business
• Length: 257 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

You cannot go wrong buying this book

There are three excellent reasons to buy this book. First, Tom Siebel is the # 1 player in the CRM revolution, which is overturning how business gets done. Second, this book will seriously help you get outside the box and think about e-business not tactically but with vision. Third, the case studies in this book are amazing and will help you to understand the range of possibilities available to your organization.

Authoritative book on true ebusiness

A truly authoritative book that explains real ebusiness:1. eBusiness is not adding a ".dot com" and a "shopping cart" to your business. 2. eBusiness is not about improving or streamlining business processes3. eBusiness is all about customer and how to keep them happy.4. eBusiness is about the infinite possibilities that the businesses have in front of them to serve the customers in a true way ( beyond the lip service ) and reap rich rewards in terms of customer loyalty.I do not want to dwell into some of the fine examples in the book ( like the $2 billion saved by IBM) but his message is concise and clear.Readers should find the examples interesting.However I have a valid comment about the book .Tom Siebel is a very respected figure in the CRM ( Customer Relationship Management) and eBusiness world. He is a legend and Icon representing the later day IT leaders.Tom Siebel's reputation in the 90s is similar to those of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in the 80s. Atleast in the book Tom should have kept above his company and competitors as he expresses his views. However unfortunately he uses Siebel's product lines to explain his point at the slightest opportunity he gets. All the examples in the book are using well known Siebel customers. A 'subtle' sales pitch for his product line all along the book.Siebel corporations major weakness of getting into the small customers is bcoz of the fear of the small firms that "Siebel is a nice product - but is too expensive and we can not afford it" ( Siebel's midget competition has several times knocked of the Goliath using this sales pitch)Tom could have used the examples of successful small firms that has reaped the benefits of eBusiness and Siebel product line.He has reinforced his views that Siebel is primely for the large corporations.Still Tom Siebel succeeds to get his message across to the readers with the same pitch as Siebel" Getting the right message to the right customers at the right time". If you want to know what is true eBusiness, then this book is for you.CHANDRASEKHARAuthor of "Internet Marketing And Search Engine Positioning - A "Do It Yourself" guide and also a Certified Siebel Consultant

Insightful!

We should state up front that this is not an impartial book. Author Thomas Siebel, CEO and founder of Siebel Systems, extols the values of "eBusiness" (his coinage, apparently), which just happens to be his company's specialty. But at least Siebel Systems - unlike a lot of dot-com companies - has thrived and remained profitable. Siebel contends (arguably based on enlightened self-interest) that companies must either employ new eBusiness tactics or perish. Using profit reports and return-on-investment studies as back-up material, he makes a pretty compelling customer-first argument that we [...] recommend to anyone who's interested in the future of business.

Excellent Overview of How the Best Convert to eBusiness

Review Summary: This book will mainly be valuable for senior executives in major corporations who do not have responsibility for information technology. Those who are aware of today's best practices in eBusiness will find the book a little too simple to be helpful. For an existing business, electronically connecting together its various activities and stakeholders is a big, tough, and frustrating task. On the other hand, it's work that has to be done in order to survive. eBusiness is not a choice, it's a key foundation of tomorrow. This book helps clarify many misconceptions about eBusiness and provides many helpful case histories that will extend and expand your perceptions. The book's main weakness is that it does too little in how to adjust business models to reflect opportunities beyond what eBusiness offers. For that reason, many readers may too narrowly focus their attention on eBusiness.Review: Thomas Siebel is the chairman and CEO of Siebel Systems, a business applications software company that helps enable eBusiness. The firm is the fastest growing software company of its age in history. The company's experiences with aiding customers form the baseline for this helpful book.First, Mr. Siebel points out that an eBusiness is more than eCommerce. An eBusiness allows a company to "record, measure, update, and analyze (in real time) large amounts of finely detailed, customer-specific information." You can also "coordinate and personalize all interactions with customers, prospects, and partners . . . ." You "program 'intelligence' into any customer-facing process and optimize those processes." You "practice intimate, one-to-one, relationship-based marketing, sales, and service." You also "execute an optimized, integrated relationship and intelligence-based . . . system of multichannel marketing, sales and service." Think of this as taking the superb service and flexibility of a handcraftsman and using systems to allow a large enterprise to have the same capabilities. As you can see, the writing in the book is a little overladen with business and software terminology.Mr. Siebel proposes 8 key principles for an eBusiness, and details these with examples in the book:(1) "Know your customer" (a segmented approach to the market) and IBM is the example;(2) "Use multiple channels to interactive customers" (3) "Personalize the customer experience"(4) "Optimize the value of every customer" (5) "Focus on 100 percent customer satisfaction" and Marriott International is the example.(6) "Develop and maintain a global, customer-centric eBusiness relationship" and Honeywell International is the example.(7) "Leverage and extend the ecosystem" and Chase Manhattan is the example. (8) "Cultivate an organizational culture based on eBusiness excellence and innovation" and Dow Chemical is the example. Quick & Reilly is used as an example of how to make the converstion to an eBusiness combining all of these principles. The book's key po