CRM Analytics: Reaching the Heart of the CRM Process

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PeopleSoft's CHUCK TELLER

Chuck Teller, GM and vice president of PeopleSoft Enterprise Performance Management

DSstar: Please tell us about your background. Who and what the key influences are in your life? How did you get your start, and how would you characterize the course of your personal development?

TELLER: I entered the Enterprise software business after an 11-year career as an urban economist specializing in public policy and real estate analysis. My key mentor as an analyst, Walter Kieser, taught me the importance of application design, structured analysis and conceptual thinking. These are key principles that I have carried throughout my career. After leaving the consulting business in 1996, I started my career in business analytics software business when I joined a start-up, Advance Planning Solutions (APS), and helped focus the company's strategy on the development of analytic applications for budgeting, planning and economic analysis. My decision to focus on analytic applications (rather than selling an analytic tool) was influenced by a presentation I saw from Ken Morris on the growth and development of PeopleSoft. This presentation helped me solidify my position that it is more beneficial to deliver packaged applications that support business analysis, rather than provide a tool for analysts to build their own applications.

TELLER: I would characterize the course of my personal and professional development as focused and determined. I have had a vision of state of the art analytic applications that allow my customers to improve the management and strategic direction of their business. Through the PeopleSoft EPM Team, I am able to realize this vision.

DSstar: Please tell us a little bit about PeopleSoft and your product line.

TELLER: PeopleSoft is the leading enterprise software vendor in the market today. We have the industry leading pure internet architecture and the business applications necessary for company's to compete and win. My product line, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) business analytics, is an essential component of the advantage that we provide to our customers. EPM business analytics allows our customers to consolidate data in a single repository and focus their efforts on setting goals, making plans and measuring progress.

DSstar: What is PeopleSoft EPM 8.3?

TELLER: PeopleSoft EPM 8.3 is the third major release of our business analytics product line. With this release we have increased our lead in the market place by introducing essential business applications for planning, budgeting, customer behavior modeling and workforce planning. This release improves the comprehensive enterprise reporting platform provided by EPM by extending our Enterprise Warehouse to include an Operational Data Store (ODS) and packaged Warehouses for human resources (HR), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM) and Financials.

DSstar: What are the business benefits of using an analytical CRM suite such as yours?

TELLER: The business benefits of our CRM Analytics suite are improved profitability and optimized execution of CRM activities. Our CRM Analytics products provide the ability to identify profitable customers, products, and channels; target marketing programs to enhance profitability, and provide insight into the effectiveness of your sales, marketing and support efforts. With one version of the truth, provided by the CRM Warehouse and state of the art data mining, our customers can refine their sales, marketing and support activities, which in turn drives customer satisfaction and profitability.

DSstar: What about the environment supported?

TELLER: All of our EPM business analytics run in a pure internet environment, with no code on the client. So we support a very diverse set of implementation situations, taking full advantage of the Web.

DSstar: How do analytics fit into the CRM picture?

TELLER: A complete CRM solution should provide you with the ability to understand, anticipate and influence your customers' behavior, and to do so in a profitable manner. Analytics fulfill the 'understand and anticipate' portion of that equation. They allow you to gain a deeper understanding of your customers through multi-dimensional analysis and reporting. Companies can see how their customers have behaved in the past, and how effective the company has been at meeting their needs. This basically gives organizations a historical view of customer information. Data mining and predictive behavior modeling let you anticipate what your customers will need next and how their preferences might change. Here, analytics provide the forward-looking perspective of your customers. The information that is provided by analytics needs to be embedded into customer facing CRM applications. This enables organizations to conduct consistent customer interactions that influence decisions that are profitable for companies as well as their customers. Analytics provide the historical knowledge and predictive insight about customers necessary to formulate appropriate CRM strategies and improve execution.

DSstar: Who is the typical PeopleSoft customer?

TELLER: The typical PeopleSoft customers are companies who realize that effective business applications will provide them with a competitive advantage and improve shareholder value. They are also companies who value a trusted technology partner and who demand state of the art transaction and analytic applications. Our customers cut across all industries and market sizes.

DSstar: Where is PeopleSoft headed, and what are you doing to steer it in the appropriate direction? What are the greatest challenges you face in this task?

TELLER: PeopleSoft is setting the standard for embedding analytics into the business process. My dedicated team of developers, strategists and marketers are working diligently with colleagues in PeopleSoft's CRM, HR, SCM and Financials groups to further enhance our business applications with analytic data and real-time analysis. The biggest challenge that we face is the scale of the effort, since PeopleSoft has over 170 business applications. That is a lot of embedded analytics.

Chuck Teller, vice president and general manager, Enterprise Performance Management, PeopleSoft

Chuck Teller joined PeopleSoft, www.peoplesoft.com, in 2000 as vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Performance Management division. As the general manager, he oversees the product strategy, product marketing, product development and customer service of PeopleSoft's business analytics product offerings.

Teller was chief executive officer of Advance Planning Solutions, an innovative developer of analytic application technology acquired by PeopleSoft in May 2000. Teller spent more than 10 years as a regional economist developing analytic applications to solve business problems for public and private sector clients.