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Siebel Introduces .NET-based CRM Tool

At its customer conference in Boston this week, Siebel Systems announced the availability of a new line of custom application development tools, including one especially designed to take advantage of Microsoft’s soon-to-be-released Visual Studio 2005.

Dubbed Siebel Component Assembly for Microsoft .NET, the new offering is targeted at developers and organizations that are experienced in building highly customized CRM applications, according to statements from the San Mateo, Calif.-based company.

The product is based on the .NET Framework and features native integration with a range of Microsoft technologies, including Office 2003, Outlook 2003, SharePoint and Exchange.

The idea behind Siebel Component Assembly is to provide pre-assembled, building block components to help organizations build custom CRM applications more quickly. It features a “metadata-driven, declarative development environment and a pre-built library of CRM components meant to enable rapid application development for .NET,” the company said.

The product includes native support for Web services and takes advantage of Visual Studio 2005’s Windows Form technology to enable development of smart client, managed applications. As its name implies, Siebel Component Assembly for Microsoft .NET also supports Windows Server 2003, ASP .NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005. In addition, Siebel Component Assembly works with native .NET deployment and administration tools, the company says.

Microsoft plans to deliver Visual Studio 2005 on Nov. 7 at a developers' event in San Francisco, despite some major changes made in the product late in the beta test cycle.

Of course, the .NET edition is not Siebel’s only play. “[Siebel Component Assembly is the result of] more than three years of work in close cooperation with BEA Systems, IBM and Microsoft – an effort known as “Project Nexus” – the new solution is the only service oriented architecture-based CRM offering that runs natively on both .NET and J2EE application server platforms,” the company’s statement said.

About the Author

Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.

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