The exact future course of CRM market leader Siebel Systems Inc. remains unclear following Wednesday"s ouster of top executive Michael Lawrie. But newly installed CEO George Shaheen emphasized that his plan will involve cutting costs and improving the company"s financial performance.

During a conference call several hours after Siebel announced that he had been chosen to replace Lawrie, Shaheen said he will focus on helping the struggling vendor"s installed base of customers make the most of their investments in its applications.

And both Shaheen and Thomas Siebel, the company"s founder and chairman, sought to assuage fears of continued instability on the part of users by promising that the appointment of Shaheen -- a member of Siebel"s board since 1995 -- wasn"t an interim step that would be followed by a search for a permanent CEO.

In his comments, Thomas Siebel said that the departure of Lawrie less than a year after he was hired wasn"t prompted by any disagreements on strategy. The company"s performance under Lawrie over the past few quarters didn"t meet internal expectations, said Siebel, who added that his own role will remain the same as it has been since he stepped down as CEO last May. At that time, Siebel said his duties as chairman would include providing input on corporate strategies and working to foster relationships with users and business partners.

Shaheen noted that as a longtime member of Siebel"s board, he has great familiarity with the company, which he considers to have many competitive advantages -- including a customer base that"s second to none in the CRM market. But Siebel can do better, he acknowledged, saying that one of his priorities will be resizing the company and ensuring that its product development strategy "is in alignment with the ever-changing needs of our customers."

Shaheen added that he plans to keep Siebel"s current executive team in place, at least for the time being. The San Mateo, Calif.-based company will continue developing its CRM analytics technology and attempt to further promote its CRM OnDemand hosted applications offering to customers, he said.

Beyond that, Shaheen offered few specifics about his plans, saying he first needs to do an evaluation of the company"s operations. He expects to be ready to disclose more details on April 27, when Siebel is scheduled to report its final results for the first quarter.

Shaheen was clear on one point: he wasn"t comfortable with the plan that Lawrie announced last October for Siebel to get involved in building customized applications for users. Shaheen said he thinks that software customizations should be left in the hands of Siebel"s business partners, at least until the company has the infrastructure in place to craft and then support such software.

One executive at a Siebel shop said that she wasn"t comforted by the conference call because Shaheen didn"t appear to know much about the company. "It"s really scary," said the user, who works at a call center services provider and asked not to be identified.

The removal of Lawrie as CEO came as a surprise, she added, saying, "I have questions about the leadership stability at the company. There seems to be turmoil every year."

But Joshua Greenbaum, an analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting in Berkeley, Calif., said it"s understandable that Shaheen was reticent about divulging specific plans during the conference call. He noted that the new CEO needs to do a comprehensive review of Siebel before publicly embarking on a new strategy. "There"s a miracle that needs to happen here, and it"s hard for Shaheen on Day 1 to say what that is," Greenbaum said.

Greenbaum added that he thinks Siebel needs a big shakeup -- perhaps one that involves using some of the US$2.2 billion in cash that it has on hand to broaden its product offerings through acquisitions. Such a buying spree could help Siebel compete more effectively against larger rivals such as SAP AG and Oracle Corp., he said.