Montana Promotion Division Picks Siebel Systems

Siebel Systems, Inc. (www.siebel.com), a provider of customer-facing solutions, today announced that the Montana Promotion Division, a division within the Montana Department of Commerce, is standardizing on Siebel Public Sector to support the state's fastest-growing industry-tourism. 

The new system, termed VISITS (Visitor Information Systems in the Treasure State) will enable the Montana Promotion Division to more effectively attract visitors to the state, provide timely trip-planning assistance to potential visitors, and more efficiently deliver visitor guides and literature to prospective tourists. Siebel Systems alliance partner Tier1 Innovation is currently helping deploy VISITS, which is expected to be live in May 2005.

"Our priorities for evaluating solutions were clear—minimal risk, strict budget alignment, and broad product capabilities out of the box," said Betsy Baumgart, Administrator, Montana Promotion Division.

In 2004, nearly 10 million visitors to Montana spent $1.9 billion. Tourism is the second-largest industry in the state and a critical source of income.

The Montana Promotion Division has seen a 15.8 percent increase in the number of nonresident visitors since 1994—and the Montana Department of Commerce seeks to continue growing this important state industry.

Previously, the Montana Promotion Division maintained a legacy system, which ultimately became outdated and unable to effectively manage the high volume of tourist-related inquiries.

The Montana Promotion Division will implement Siebel Public Sector to manage several key programs designed to promote tourism and attract visitors. Siebel Public Sector will enable the state's marketing team to manage, track, and report the success of marketing campaigns to key constituents.

More than 75 regional, state, and local governments worldwide have selected Siebel Public Sector to improve service delivery by providing a central point for citizens to access government information and services, enabling collaboration among departments, and offering government employees a single view of the citizen via real-time data integration across multiple systems.