SAP's revenue contribution was "negligible" in 2000 as that was the year the company first introduced its CRM solutions, said Moaiyad Taher Hoosenally, Frost & Sullivan industry manager for Enterprise Communications.
But in 2001, the German firm sidelined many seasoned players, including Peoplesoft and Oracle, to garner an 18.6 percent market share, a recent study conducted by the research firm revealed.
Last year, Siebel led the field with a 33.4 percent share in Asia-Pacific's US$254 million CRM market, Hoosenally said at a press briefing Wednesday.
He attributed SAP's quantum leap to its success in cross-selling to existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) customers, which total 17,000 worldwide.
In Asia-Pacific, SAP's customers include San Miguel and Unilever in the Philippines, FAW-Volkswagen in China, Jones Lang LaSalle in Australia, and Hankuk Glass Industries in Korea.
Although rivalry between the two software giants is intensifying, Siebel seems unperturbed.
"I don't feel threatened. We are the leader and we have proven our success," said Terence Chan, Siebel's managing director for South Asia.
In 2001, Siebel scored major wins with the Development Bank of Singapore, Virgin Mobile in Singapore, Malaysian National Insurance and Advanced Info Systems in Thailand.
"In fact, I feel competition is healthy as it shows that the CRM business is lucrative," the ex-SAP executive said.
Chan said Siebel is the top CRM provider among traditional SAP customers, citing examples such as Deutsche Telekom, Telstra, National Australia Bank, Guinness Anchor Breweries and Singapore Telecommunications. He noted that over 380 SAP customers worldwide are running Siebel CRM applications.
A similar claim--which appeared in Siebel's advertising campaign in Europe--landed the company in court late April. Germany's Frankfurt District Court ruled in favor of SAP, ordering a halt to the ads.
In response to Chan's claims, SAP Asia director of CRM Satyavrath Krishnaswamy merely said the company has more than 1,500 CRM clients globally.
CRM solutions contributed US$412 million to SAP's worldwide revenues in 2001, compared with Siebel's US$2.05 billion.
In a June report, BNP Paribas said it would be difficult for SAP to overtake Siebel. "Siebel has established a very strong lead, underpinned by its highly aggressive marketing and branding strategy; the company's name has become virtually synonymous with CRM. Siebel has also penetrated SAP's installed base very effectively, selling an estimated US$1 billion in licenses to SAP customers," the report said.
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