Business & Money Trail:

STONEBRIDGE TECHNOLOGIES COMPLETES WEB-ENABLED BI SOLUTION

Stonebridge Technologies, a leading provider of technology consulting and enterprise integration services with offices in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, announced it recently completed a multi-function data warehouse for The Oklahoma Publishing Company (OPUBCO). OPUBCO owns The Daily Oklahoman, the largest, most widely read newspaper in the state.

Dan Barth, OPUBCO's chief information officer, said, "Stonebridge delivered high-quality results in a project which pulled from multiple legacy data sources creating complex challenges. They successfully juggled multiple development tracks involving three different user groups and various delivery schedules, and met every deadline, on time and as promised. The users have nothing but praise for the new reporting and analytical capabilities."

The Stonebridge-developed data warehouse was primarily developed to support OPUBCO's new database marketing service. It also supports the newspaper publisher's traditional circulation and print advertising business operations. Stonebridge also helped OPUBCO develop user-defined multidimensional databases, or "cubes," to enable users in all three business functions to gain more robust business reporting and analytical capabilities.

"Partnering with a company like Stonebridge and using their expertise in managing complex IT projects enabled us to get our database marketing service off the drawing board and in production more quickly," Barth said. "Stonebridge enabled us to mitigate the risk inherent in high-impact IT projects and, just as importantly, helped develop internal expertise in our IT staff to ensure that we are able to increase the value of our business intelligence initiative over time."

James Ivy, Stonebridge's CEO, said, "The OPUBCO project epitomizes how we can help our customers get a measurable ROI from their information technology. Business intelligence -- that is, gaining access to data, and giving knowledge workers the specific data and the tools they needed to be more productive and efficient -- enables businesses to get a greater return from their existing IT investments. Our business intelligence/data warehousing consulting and development skills are equal to, if not superior to, anyone in the industry."

OPUBCO is one of the first newspaper publishers in the country to expand its traditional print advertising services through database marketing built upon the company's existing circulation and advertising data. OPUBCO now offers regional businesses direct-mail marketing services, including market segmentation, predictive modeling and campaign management.

David Thompson, OPUBCO's director of advertising, said the direct marketing program showed tangible results within 30 days of its launch. "The Stonebridge solution shows the great potential of using advanced business intelligence technology to create targeted direct-mail campaigns for real one-to-one marketing," Thompson said. "Target marketing campaigns represent an untapped revenue source for media companies, and we're pleased to be one of the first to take advantage of this new trend."

To support OPUBCO's direct marketing, advertising and circulation functions, Stonebridge extracted function-specific data from the warehouse to create "cubes" using Cognos PowerPlay business intelligence software. Users access the data via a Web portal built using Cognos Upfront. Stonebridge designed the portal to mirror the look and feel of OPUBCO's corporate intranet.

For users in OPUBCO's direct marketing group, the cubes provide a high-level view of consumer segments based on a wide variety of demographic and lifestyle attributes. Users then can perform more precise segmentation and predictive modeling and manage the direct marketing program using Unica Affinium Model and Campaign database marketing modules.

Stonebridge also developed the capability for OPUBCO to load its direct-marketing customers' client lists into the data warehouse for matching. The data can then be rolled into a Cognos PowerPlay cube to compare and analyze the customer's list to the warehouse totals -- all of which enables OPUBCO to offer its customers more precise marketing programs.

"The project was incredibly complex, and I give Stonebridge an A+ for their performance," said OPUBCO's Thompson. "They grasped the business issues behind the direct marketing concept and worked hand-in-hand with our IT personnel to build a high-quality solution that accomplished every technical and business requirement needed to achieve our stated goals, and they delivered it on schedule. And because 'knowledge transfer' is integral to their approach, our IT staff gained new technical knowledge necessary to keep the data warehouse running smoothly. From start to finish, this was the best technology project I've been associated with."

About Stonebridge Technologies Inc

Stonebridge Technologies is an award-winning technology consulting company serving businesses in the South Central and Southeast United States. Stonebridge collaborates with clients to architect, develop and deploy enterprise integration solutions that leverage rapid advances in Web-enabled technologies and devices to transform and extend the life of existing business-critical systems. Built on the latest innovations of leading technology partners such as Sun Microsystems and Oracle, Stonebridge's core skills in enterprise relationship management, business intelligence, and enterprise resource planning help clients increase revenues, gain operational efficiencies and create sustained competitive advantage. More information about Stonebridge is available at www.sbti.com.

Contact Craig Dees of Stonebridge Technologies Inc, 972-455-7271, craig.dees@sbti.com.