SILICON SEER

摘要

Smart forecasting has helped Siebel Systems Inc. weather the tech meltdown better than its brethren. After last year's torrid 130% growth, analysts expected the software maker's 2001 sales to hit $4 billion, up from $1.98 billion. That would have put the eight-year-old company near the top of the industry, next to giants such as Oracle Corp. and sap. But CEO Thomas M. Siebel, looking over a computer screen of sales reports, could see by late February that the slackening economy was taking its toll. Contracts weren't getting signed. Customers were scaling back on big-dollar deals. And the market that Siebel plays in, software that manages remote sales forces and customer information, was shrinking from 50% annual growth to 25%. "The numbers just weren't adding up," Siebel says.