Exchange Applications and SAS Institute Ship First
Integrated Application for Dynamic Scoring in
Marketing Campaigns
ACTION ITEMS
Exchange Applications, a leading provider of customer optimization software and services, announced that its new version of VALEX software, available immediately, is the first campaign management application to integrate data mining capabilities. Through a separately priced software module called Model Connect, VALEX 2.1 users can dynamically score customer segments by invoking statistical models from SAS Institute's Enterprise Miner software directly into marketing campaigns.
Exchange Applications reports that several other data mining companies are currently evaluating the technology.
VALEX 2.1 with Model Connect significantly reduces the amount of customization required for businesses to incorporate up-to-the-minute statistical modeling results into marketing campaigns. This integration enables marketers to respond quickly to customer behavior. Exchange Applications will demonstrate VALEX 2.1 and Model Connect at the National Center for Database Marketing (NCDM) conference, December 13-15 in Orlando, Florida (Booth #419). SAS Institute will also demonstrate VALEX 2.1 and Model Connect at its NCDM booth, #609.
Integrated data mining enables instant response to customer behavior
Data mining software analyzes volumes of information to predict customer and prospect behavior. For example, SAS Enterprise Miner might run an analytical model that assigns a score to each customer, indicating each one's likelihood to defect from the company, upgrade or respond to an offer.
Raising the technology bar for competitors, Exchange Applications' Model Connect brings marketing professionals many benefits, among them:
Prior to Model Connect, companies had to run data mining models against a complete database of customer and prospect information. This took a tremendous amount of time, and at the end of the process, scores had to be manually integrated with customer segments selected by campaign management software an error-prone process that was performed infrequently. Using Model Connect and an add-on component to Enterprise Miner called SAS Marketing Automation Server, businesses will be able to invoke SAS models from within VALEX, and score only those customers targeted for the campaign. This "dynamic scoring" not only saves time, but also ensures that the scores are completely up-to-date. Hence, companies can react immediately to customer behavior with highly targeted marketing campaigns.
U S West, a telecommunications firm serving more than 14 million customers, had been a test site for Model Connect, and the first U.S. telecom company to perform dynamic scoring. U S West uses SAS Enterprise Miner for data mining. According to Dennis DeGregor, Vice President, Relationship Marketing for U S West, the integrated VALEX/ Enterprise Miner solution is beginning to have a measurable impact on retention and customer profitability. "Model Connect allows us to production-score millions of customer records at the touch of a button and create a one-to-one marketing approach based on the customer's unique attributes, such as lifetime value, potential value, churn score, credit score and geography," explained DeGregor. "This creates a true business advantage for U S West. We're now able to create highly customized offerings that increase the value proposition, our retention rate and the profitability of customer relationships."
DeGregor added, "Integration between campaign management and data mining seems obvious, but implementing the technology is complex. Exchange Applications and SAS Institute have gone beyond mere data integration to the software level, and filled a unique applications need that was central to U S West's customer management approach."
Andy Frawley, founder and CEO of Exchange Applications, is pleased
that the company is first to market with this important technology.
"The marriage of mining and campaign management is a requirement for
optimizing customer value across all product lines and customer
touch-points,"
he said.
True customer optimization requires continuous monitoring and managing of customer behavior and looks beyond an individual campaign mindset, Frawley explained. Because campaign management resides between the data warehouse and customer touch-points, it can be the traffic cop for managing customer communication across the enterprise. "Analytics such as data mining can make campaign management more intelligent - worthy of its role as the core of a company-wide customer optimization architecture."
"This software fusion between SAS Enterprise and Miner and VALEX represents the first delivery of a truly integrated application in the customer relationship management space," noted Ellen Joyner, SAS Institute program manager for CRM Solutions. "SAS Institute and Exchange Applications have worked extremely well together, and we're pleased to unveil the solution at NCDM '98."
VALEX 2.1 features
Other new features for VALEX 2.1 include multiple ways to view and build campaigns; additional ease-of-use wizards and queries; enhanced profiling of customers; and support for additional database and server platforms. All simplify the construction and execution of extensive, complex, marketing campaigns and enhance users' ability to automate campaigns based on customer behaviors and time or event triggers. VALEX 2.1 provides benefits in campaign management, including:
VALEX 2.1 is backed by Exchange Applications' professional services staff, which has considerable expertise in database marketing, Continuous Customer Management and the optimization of customer value. VALEX has been proven in production at over 30 sites internationally - more than any other campaign management application.
Platforms, Pricing and Availability
VALEX 2.1 pricing begins at approximately $150,000 U.S. and is based on the size of the client's customer and prospect databases. Model Connect is priced at $25,000 U.S. per application server. Both are shipping immediately. VALEX 2.0 users with maintenance agreements will receive an automatic upgrade to 2.1, and can purchase Model Connect separately. The VALEX client runs on Windows NT and Windows 95 and 98. The VALEX server runs on Windows and Unix systems and supports all ODBC-compliant databases.
SAS Enterprise Miner and the SAS marketing automation server are purchased directly from SAS Institute.
Exchange Applications, Inc.
As the pioneer of customer optimization software, Exchange Applications, Inc. helps businesses optimize the value of customer relationships across channels and product lines. Its award-winning VALEX software and consulting services help businesses identify customer segments offering high profit potential, and then maximize the value of those segments through highly targeted and coordinated direct marketing campaigns. Exchange Applications provides marketers with the technology to plan, build, execute, analyze and refine marketing campaigns that produce measurable return on investment. Through VALEX, a company automates and accelerates its marketing process to improve customer acquisition, expansion and retention. Exchange Applications is based in Boston, with offices in Denver, London and Sydney. Visit Exchange Applications on the Web at http://www.exapps.com