NCR Solution for Targeted Marketing and Campaign Management Helps Retailers Attract and Retain Their Most Profitable Customers
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NCR Corporation and Ceres Integrated Solutions, Inc., have announced a targeted marketing and campaign management solution that provides retailers the ability to get closer to their customers.

NCR retailDecisions for Targeted Marketing and Campaign Management is a strategic solution combining the Ceres Targeted Marketing application with NCR's Teradata Warehouse and services for retail data warehousing. The Ceres application, which has been ported to Teradata, enables retailers to harness information in their data warehouses to effectively and efficiently attract the most profitable customers and encourage them to become the most loyal.

Last December, NCR and Ceres announced they were partnering on a referral basis to jointly deliver targeted marketing and campaign management solutions to retailers. Under their newly expanded relationship, NCR sales and services professionals will design and implement the NCR-Ceres solution for retailers in North America and Europe.

Joint NCR-Ceres customers include J.C. Penney Company, Inc., the fifth largest retailer in the United States and the nation's largest catalog merchant of general merchandise. J.C. Penney will be using a Ceres and Teradata solution to target and manage promotional campaigns for its catalog and retail divisions.

"As mass media effectiveness continues to decline, retailers are increasingly looking to leverage technology to individualize customer relationships," said Tim Harmon, vice president of META Group's Retail & Distribution Information Strategies. "The Ceres application is unique in its capability to target customers according to demand, profitability, and promotion relevance, via customers' preferred communications channels. Combined with NCR's data warehousing architectural foundation, Ceres facilitates a means for relationship marketing that scales to meet the needs of mass personalization."

NCR retailDecisions for Targeted Marketing and Campaign Management is an enterprise solution, fully integrated to include retail specific segmentation, analysis, and campaign management.

"This new offering fits well with NCR's strategic direction to offer a complete portfolio of world-class retail data warehouse solutions that leverage the industry-leading performance of NCR's Teradata Warehouse," said Rick Schultz, NCR's vice president for Retail Industry Computer Marketing. "This includes delivering 'active warehouse' solutions that leverage the data warehouse and automate operational processes such as campaign management."

NCR retailDecisions for Targeted Marketing and Campaign Management is available now for retailers in North America and will be available in European markets later this year. A leader in retail data warehousing, NCR offers integrated solutions that include the company's retail industry consulting and implementation services, Teradata Warehouse, WorldMark servers and Enterprise Support Services, as well as NCR and third party applications.

"NCR and Ceres will continue optimizing our Targeted Marketing application for NCR Teradata Warehouse solutions," said Peter Heffring, president of Ceres. "We're excited about the future possibilities as we integrate Teradata even more tightly with the Ceres Targeted Marketing application and work through NCR to deliver high performance campaign management solutions to leading retailers in the United States, Canada and Europe."

About Ceres

Ceres Integrated Solutions, Inc., a privately held firm based in Raleigh, N.C., is a leading provider of Intelligent Operational Software and analytical services. Founded in 1996, Ceres is dedicated to meeting the growing demand for high quality retail marketing and merchandising software. To learn more about Ceres, visit the company's Web site at http://www.ceresios.com.

About NCR

NCR Corporation is in the business of transforming transactions into relationships. NCR is a recognized world leader in data warehousing solutions, ATMs, point-of-service, high performance scanners, and support services for retail, financial and national accounts markets. NCR's business solutions are built on the foundation of the company's long-established industry knowledge and consulting expertise, value-adding software, global customer support services, a complete line of consumable and media products, and world-leading hardware technology.

NCR's Retail Solutions Group, headquartered in the greater Atlanta area, is a leading provider of retail data warehousing and store automation solutions worldwide. More information about NCR and its solutions may be found on the Internet at http://www.ncr.com.