Siebel Systems, Inc., a provider of business applications software, and Fast Search & Transfer (FAST), a developer of enterprise search and real-time alerting technologies, have formed a multi-year partnership. Terms of the agreement involve the integration of FAST InStream within the core Siebel business applications platform, making FAST's enterprise search capabilities available across Siebel Systems' family of business applications and hosted solutions. The agreement also provides Siebel Systems the ability to leverage FAST InStream internally. Siebel Systems plans to incorporate FAST search technology into its internal Siebel deployment later this year.

FAST InStream, FAST's OEM enterprise search solution specifically designed for partner solutions, is designed to increase the value of enterprise applications and boost ROI for the partner's customers by extending the power of FAST ESP technology. The integration of FAST InStream with Siebel business applications is expected to enable a host of new functionality for Siebel customers; customers will be able to extend their use of Siebel solutions by integrating existing customer and sales information with information from a range of repositories including databases, Web and intranet pages, and third-party internal file systems.

The open and modular architecture of FAST InStream provides businesses flexibility when selecting and deploying search solutions—from specialized search and alerting applications to multilingual enterprise search platforms. FAST's solutions enable customers to mix and match individual data access modules (Web crawler, file traverser, database connector, and XML converter) for integration with enterprise applications, while adding search or data volume capacity, and features such as advanced real-time functionality and security options.

FAST ESP and FAST's portfolio of solutions and Search Derivative Applications (SDAs) are intended to supply a complete information retrieval solution for a number of vertical markets and applications including ecommerce and internet portals, financial services, government, life sciences, media and publishing, and telecom.
(www.fastsearch.com; www.siebel.com)