Siebel, edocs to integrate back-office platforms

(Telephony) Siebel Systems, an eBusiness application provider, and edocs, an Internet billing company, announced a partnership to integrate their respective platforms to deliver faster and less expensive account management services.

Siebel’s eCommunications 2000.3 software helps telecom companies manage customer access points, including the Web, call center, field organization and distribution channels while its eEnergy 2000.3 software provides utility companies the infrastructure to deliver online billing and account management solutions.

edocs will integrate its eaSuite, which also provides online billing and account management solutions, with the Siebel platforms.

“What the combination allows [customers] to do is quickly leverage the functionality that they would get through Siebel as well as through edocs,” said Rob Orgel, vice president of business development for edocs.

The companies currently are working on the connector that links the two applications using edocs’ application programming interface set and similar Siebel interfaces. “It is expected to become a validated Siebel solution some time within the first quarter of this year,” Orgel said.

According to Jim Moran, co-founder and executive vice president of sales and marketing for edocs, the connector will be the key to assuring the two applications are interoperable.

“Companies can proceed with a high level of confidence that the two will work together very quickly and easily,” he said.

The most important benefits will be in terms of speed of deployment, the cost of deployment and the elimination of any risk involved in deploying the two integrations, added Moran.

edocs has been a Siebel Software Partner for a more than a year.