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Harte-Hanks Delivers New Version of Allink Agent

To help marketers capitalize on changes in customer behavior in real time, Harte-Hanks Inc announced the immediate availability of Allink Agent 3.5, a marketing engine that triggers personalized, multichannel communications whenever a customer makes a significant transaction or indicates some other form of changing behavior.

Allink Agent 3.5 highlights include the addition of enhanced real-time processing capabilities, new account and customer identification (ID) matching capabilities, as well as improved performance, and systems administration reporting. The newest version of Allink Agent, first introduced in 1999, complements other integrated marketing solutions offered by Harte-Hanks, among them marketing analytics, direct mail, e-mail and other interactive, customer care and comprehensive customer data management expertise. The "Allink" brand translates to a data planning, building, action, support and analyze process that helps businesses gain a comprehensive, enterprise-wide view of customers.

"To be relevant, marketers must act fast on customer transactions. Allink Agent 3.5 provides our clients with more power and flexibility in the way they respond to their customers' daily activity," said Spencer Joyner, group president, software and systems, Harte-Hanks. "By utilizing Allink Agent 3.5, our clients have more options for how they communicate and coordinate timely and relevant messages across multiple delivery channels."

Allink Agent 3.5 incorporates the existing benefits of Allink Agent, including the ability to integrate easily with existing operational systems, and leverage customer investments in data warehouses, distribution management, data mining, point-of-sale and customer knowledge systems. Version 3.5 includes a variety of enhancements and new features:

• Real-time processing capabilities include the use of MQSeries, an enterprise application integration product from IBM. Leveraging MQSeries allows Allink Agent to integrate automatically and in real time or in daily batch mode to other third party input/output channels, such as automatic teller machines (ATM), sales force automation (SFA), call center, point of sale (POS), Internet, e-mail, Web and wireless.
• New Account and Customer ID matching capabilities enable Allink Agent to integrate to the Trillium Software System of Harte-Hanks, the industry's leading data quality software solution. Allink Agent uses the matching functionality of Trillium to link customer information across the enterprise to match individuals, businesses and households across customer "touch points." Trillium also establishes a unique ID for customer recognition, including a "household ID." This feature is useful for processing new account records from a financial institution or prospect records from a call center where the match key is not known and the only information available is the name and address.
• System-level components provide improved system administration reporting, transactional data processing and performance. The addition of system administration reports enables users to report on metrics such as the run-time of programs, total number of records processed, wait time, and duration time for specific segments within a program. These reports allow users to optimize the running of programs and let them determine areas within a program that may need to be reviewed. The improved transactional data processing brings new functionality to how data is viewed and processed within Allink Agent. In Agent 3.5, the user has the ability to define the format of the data, providing users with greater flexibility in manipulation and calculation of data.

"In our industry, it's important to identify significant changes in our customers' behavior and to be able to respond immediately across the most appropriate channels," said Aaron Garner, senior vice president, strategic marketing, of Sovereign Bank. "With Allink Agent 3.5, we can identify and respond to our customers' changing needs and in essence strike when the iron is hot. As a direct result, there is both a higher level of service and more opportunities to retain and bring in new business."

"Leading enterprises recognize that acquiring and maintaining profitable customer relationships is increasingly tied directly to their capacity to react to customer behavior with timely and relevant communications using the channels or points of interaction that their customers prefer," said Sam Clark, program director with Meta Group's Application Delivery Strategies Service.

Allink Agent from Harte-Hanks uses advanced technology to monitor and to analyze front- and back-office transactions. Using sophisticated business rules, Allink Agent automatically generates customized marketing alerts and multichannel customer communications, employing direct mail, e-mail, Web, SFA, call center, ATM, POS and wireless channels. Allink Agent can be implemented easily as an installed, hosted, or services-based solution.

About Harte-Hanks Inc

Harte-Hanks Inc, San Antonio, TX, is a worldwide, direct and interactive services company that provides end-to-end customer relationship management (CRM) and related marketing services solutions for a host of consumer and business-to-business marketers. Visit the Harte-Hanks Web site at www.harte-hanks.com or call 800-456-9748.