Freeserve Using WhiteCross ASP Customer & Site Analysis

WhiteCross Systems, a leading Application Service Provider for business intelligence solutions, announces that Freeserve, a leading UK Internet portal, is deploying new customer and site tracking tools which enable it to analyze members interests and demographics to levels previously unachieved by a UK Internet portal. WhiteCross is providing Freeserve with a highly sophisticated level of analysis that gives an accurate picture of customer segments without infringing on the privacy of individuals.

Freeserve has been utilizing the WX/ASP Services for six months in evaluation mode and has now signed an ongoing agreement engaging WhiteCross to analyze customer behavior within its portal. This will enable Freeserve to better understand and tailor the types of content and services to match its members' real interests. The service will also benefit advertisers and ecommerce merchants that showcase goods and services on the Freeserve portal by enhancing their understanding of prospective customer demographics while retaining the anonymity of Freeserve members.

"As the UK's leading Internet brand our goal is to continue to offer our subscribers the best of the Web as well as a highly effective and reliable service," said Helen Litvak, Freeserve's marketing data manager. "In order to achieve this we need to build a complete picture of our customer base so we can tailor content and services on the site to meet their needs. The aim of this initiative is to develop and organize content, enabling us to provide our customers with access to everything they need from the Web within one click on Freeserve. Only WhiteCross could provide us with a service that will give us the level of detail required to gain a real insight into every Freeserve member segments' interests and requirements."

The number of ISPs is increasing exponentially. Freeserve's current business model relies, in part, on fees charged for telephone calls. As this source of revenue erodes and eventually disappears, Freeserve intends to move to a business model supported by commerce, community, and advertising. They therefore need to provide a unique service which will meet customers' information needs.

"Freeserve has evolved from focusing on customer Web connection needs to understanding and providing for customer information needs," said Bill Porter, product director of e-commerce, WhiteCross. "As a supplier of analytical services, WhiteCross is measured on the timeliness and accuracy of the information we deliver to Freeserve's management team. We are responsible for providing answers to business questions based on Freeserve's data, not simply providing statistics."

As well as using the WX/ASP solution to enable it to continue to gain marketshare, Freeserve will be able to improve demographic information available to companies advertising or selling on its portal. Freeserve will not release any information about individual customers to advertisers or etailers, but will use the information gathered to provide its affiliates with detailed analyses of specific member segments and their usage patterns. For example, Freeserve has radically changed the content and cross linking of various communities on their site due to insights derived from the WhiteCross ASP Services. Also, Freeserve has plans to implement multiple content and commerce relationships driven from a deeper understanding of the needs of their customers.

WX/ASP Services provides complete loading, preparation and analysis of multiple data sources to enable companies to understand their consumer's behavior, needs and preferences. It provides a complete service from delivering regular static reports, to ad hoc explanatory analysis, to advanced data mining on full volume data. It can also, for example, pose ad-hoc searching questions of the data to determine whether to implement a new initiative such as a new product line. Companies can gain insight about the stickiness of their Website, seasonal trends, on and offline purchase behavior and customer acquisition, loyalty and wallet share. Portals such as Freeserve can therefore run their businesses based on customer satisfaction as they have the ability to change course based on what the market is telling them through data collected about customer behavior and usage patterns.

About WhiteCross Systems

WhiteCross Systems is a pioneer and leader in the delivery of large-scale data analysis via the Application Service Provider (ASP) model. Using its Data Exploration Server (WX/DES), which powers its analytic outsourcing service, WX/ASP, WhiteCross allows organizations to be free from the tremendous financial, time and human expenditures commonly associated with large-scale data analysis, as well as the IT demands, burdens and risks involved with the deployment of these systems. This enables clients involved in telecommunications and e-commerce to reduce time-to-market, as well as gain an unprecedented understanding of their markets, competitors and consumers.

WhiteCross Systems supports and extends its customers' ability to grow their businesses with the market-leading WX/DES platform and a staff of expert consultants. WhiteCross consultants use their knowledge of large-scale data analysis to augment the experience of clients' personnel, proactively presenting insight gleaned from the massive amounts of data collected from the clients. Through this feedback, clients obtain the essential analysis and feedback that aids in personalization and success. Further information on WhiteCross is available at www.whitecross.com.

About Freeserve

Freeserve is a leading UK Internet portal with an integrated offering of UKfocused content, e-commerce services and free Internet access. At March 12th, 2000, Freeserve had 1.9 million active registered accounts and 162.8 million page impressions in February 2000.

Freeserve was launched in September 1998 as part of the Dixons, Europe leading consumer electronics retailer. Freeserve distributes its access software through Dixons network of over 1000 Dixons, Currys, PC World, The Link and @jakarta stores.

Contact John K. Thompson, vice president worldwide marketing WhiteCross Systems Inc, 773-293-0720 John.K.Thompson@WhiteCross.com.