Quadstone and Data Miners Team Up

Quadstone and Data Miners unveiled a significant partnership to help CRM-focused organizations optimize their operations through better analysis and modeling of customer behavior. The agreement covers a reciprocal arrangement for professional services, allowing both partners to call on the service resources of the other in client engagements, the installation of the Quadstone System at Data Miners and a joint effort to produce a customer behavior modeling course aimed at direct marketing analysts.

Quadstone is a provider of analytical software that helps business-to-consumer organizations build more profitable relationships with their customers through analysis and prediction of customer behavior. "We have long been fans of the work of Data Miners, particularly their books which unravel many of the complexities of data mining for the marketing professional. Our common goal ­ empowering the business user through harnessing the predictive value of customer data ­ provides a solid foundation for our partnership," commented Mark Smith, president of Quadstone. "With the benefit of our know-how of implementing customer behavior modeling solutions, and Data Miners expert consulting experience, we can show marketing professionals the fast track to delivering ROI from their campaigns."

Headed by renowned data mining authorities Michael Berry and Gordon Linoff, authors of the industry standard texts Data Mining Techniques for Marketing, Sales and Customer Support and Mastering Data Mining, Data Miners is a consultancy specializing in applying advanced data mining techniques to customer intelligence issues. Data Miners chose to work with Quadstone because the company offers software that delivers unprecedented insight into any volume of data, quickly and flexibly enough to support the ever-shorter marketing cycles businesses demand, along with a unique team of analysts that possess both domain expertise and extensive data modeling experience.

"The market is fast realizing that now that they have their CRM systems in place they need to find a way to refine their output to stay ahead. This is where analytical CRM comes in," says Michael Berry, principal, Data Miners. "However in today's markets the requisite skills are hard to find and even with the skills in place it is a battle to keep pace with marketing cycles. Working together with Quadstone we can help more organizations address these issues."

The two-way professional services agreement will see the partners working together to offer Quadstone's current and prospective clients broader, independent analytical CRM consultancy, in addition to the data analysis services already available from Quadstone's in-house team. Conversely Data Miners will add flexibility to its offering by being able to call on the comprehensive service resources at Quadstone. The partners are already working on their first joint engagement at a major financial services organization.

Data Miners will also be using the Quadstone System software to enhance productivity of its own analysis projects. The software has already been installed at Data Miners' Cambridge headquarters. "As independent consultants we have reviewed literally hundreds of software solutions. We truly believe that the Quadstone System is a leader in its space and will help us increase the speed at which we deliver results to our clients," affirmed Michael Berry.

The customer behavior modeling course aims to arm marketing analysts with a range of skills to enhance their customer analysis processes ­ from system implementation tips to predictive modeling best practice. Tutors will encourage students to build procedures that are transparent and repeatable, and ensure every planned CRM action feeds into a cycle of continuous learning about customers and their behavior. Preparations for the course are well underway with the first workshop scheduled for early summer.

About Quadstone

Quadstone provides powerful customer behavior modeling and predictive marketing software. Quadstone's products allow business and marketing executives to instantly and easily employ predictive modeling techniques to produce sophisticated analyses that visually represent customer behavior from every marketing channel - Web, direct marketing, sales, call centers and operations. Because the Quadstone System can be installed and deployed to produce results within weeks, typically faster and more precisely than any other offering available, executives can quickly measure and influence more profitable customer behavior, while decreasing marketing's reliance on IT or statisticians.

Quadstone's international clients include market leaders in the e-tail/retail, financial services and telecommunications sectors and include Barclays Bank, CVS.com, Eircom, M&I Bank, Sainsbury's, SmarterKids.com, Telenor and Vodafone among others. Quadstone was named best "Small Start-up" of the year at the Financial Times/Cartier/BVCA awards in 1998, and earned Deloitte & Touche's "Fast 50" award in 1998/1999 and 1999/2000. Founded in 1995, Quadstone's European operations are based in London, England, and the company's research and development center is located in Edinburgh, Scotland. Quadstone's North American operations are headquartered in Boston, MA, U.S.A. For more information visit www.quadstone.com.

About DataMiners

Data Miners was founded in January of 1998. The principals are Michael J. A. Berry and Gordon S. Linoff, the authors of the best-selling books on data mining, Data Mining Techniques for Marketing, Sales and Customer Support (1997 John Wiley & Sons) and Mastering Data Mining (2000 John Wiley & Sons). The company specializes in building predictive models of customer behavior that can be used to improve customer relationship management at all phases of the customer lifecycle. Retention models, cross-sell models, and response models are all good examples of analytic CRM. Data Miners also provides data mining training and seminars. Past and present clients include Bank of America, Skytel, The New York Times, Liberty Mutual, John Hancock, Hummingbird Communications, VoiceStream, American Express, Compaq. The company headquarters is at 147 Sherman Street, Suite 200, Cambridge, MA 02140. For more information visit www.data-miners.com.

Contact Fiona Neil of Quadstone Inc, 617-753-7393, Fiona.neil@quadstone.com.