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By Mel Duvall
Oracle launched a new salvo against rival Salesforce.com Tuesday with the latest release of its Oracle CRM On Demand customer-relationship management product.
The new program features what Oracle refers to as "social CRM enhancements," such as the ability to identify if a colleague might have a connection to a sales prospect so they can be called upon to help close a deal, as well as a message center that allows users to share information or subscribe to Really Simple Syndication (RSS) content feeds.
The software has also been customized to run on Research in Motion's BlackBerry communication devices.
In announcing the mobile version, Anthony Lye, Oracle senior vice president of CRM, said the company tried to address the fact that rather than try to cram "the kitchen sink" onto a mobile device, users wanted a more simplified user interface. "Sales professionals often don't like cumbersome CRM on their laptops and like it even less squeezed onto a tiny screen and keyboard," said Lye.
The Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant product for the BlackBerry is built on a Java client, and costs $30 per user per month.
The newest release of the Oracle CRM On Demand software is based on technology Oracle acquired two years ago when it purchased software maker Siebel for close to $6 billion. It dropped the name Siebel from the product with this the 15th release.
The software marks an important step for Oracle as it looks to pick up the battle against rival Saleforce.com. Salesforce.com won one of the biggest sales force automation deals in 2007 when it beat out Oracle to provide software to 30,000 employees of Citigroup. Salesforce.com also counts Merrill Lynch among its customers, with 25,000 subscribers, putting the company squarely in the turf traditionally held by Oracle.
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