SGI AND ACXIOM ADVANCE DATABASE MARKETING FOR THE INTERNET ECONOMY
To help small- and medium-sized companies compete in today's fast-paced economy, SGI and Acxiom Corporation have demonstrated next-generation database marketing technology designed to provide fast, affordable and easy access to customer intelligence enabling companies to more effectively market products and services. Combining the power of the Internet, SGI's high-performance servers and advanced visual data mining technology, and access to the comprehensive Acxiom Data Network, the new technology will also be offered to Internet service providers, giving them an ideal value-added service to provide to customers running e-commerce Web sites.
"There is a great need in the industry to bring strategic business analysis and visual data mining capabilities and tools to mainstream markets," said Aaron Zornes, executive vice president, Application Delivery Strategies, META Group. "Collaborative offerings, such as Acxiom and SGI's, that help companies develop effective marketing strategies and customer loyalty programs by enabling them to quickly uncover hidden patterns and better predict customer behavior, are critical to any organization that is concerned with leveraging strategic information about their customers and competitors."
The new technology, code-named "Tango," was demonstrated recently in Boston and leverages Acxiom's expertise as a leading data provider and SGI's expertise in visualization and high-performance server solutions. The technology is designed to enable users to merge their own proprietary data, such as daily transaction records, with Acxiom's vast amounts of consumer and demographic data, and analyze the data using components of SGI's powerful visual data mining technology, MineSet -- all via the Web. In addition to speed, affordability and accessibility, Tango is easy to use, so even non-mathematicians can fully benefit from the powerful data mining capabilities.
Here's how it is designed to work: using the Web interface, a marketing manager for a small e-commerce company can quickly gain new insight into customers by visually analyzing the company's storefront data enhanced by Acxiom. In minutes over the Internet, the SGI and Acxiom solution provides the merchant with a visual summary of sales and uses visual data mining to identify, and allow users to further analyze, the most important customer attributes driving profitability. Armed with this new insight, the marketing manager is able to develop a strategic marketing campaign.
"Typically, only large, Fortune 1000 companies have had access to valuable consumer data and a staff of analysts to perform and understand the data analysis," said Ihab Abu-Hakima, vice president and general manager, Strategic Business Analysis, SGI. "SGI and Acxiom are working together to develop innovative solutions that bring those capabilities to the novice data miner and will enable companies to compete on a whole new level."
SGI's visual data mining technology, MineSet, merges 3D visualizations and animation with powerful and proven algorithms to deliver fast knowledge discovery and accurate predictive business modeling for such applications as database marketing, financial/risk analysis, fraud management and bioinformatics. MineSet 2.6 is currently available for the IRIX operating system on highly scalable, high-performance SGI Origin servers. MineSet 3.0 Enterprise Edition for the IRIX and Windows NT operating systems is scheduled to be available this summer. For more information, please contact SGI by e-mail at mineset@sgi.com.
SGI powers the most innovative sites and applications on the Internet, including powerhouses like AT&T Alestra (Mexico), GTE, Hiway Technologies, Retevision (Spain) and high-volume Internet sites like Discovery Channel, the Los Angeles Times, Netscape Netcenter and Sabre Travelocity. Known for industry-leading performance and reliability, SGI servers enable organizations to uniquely offer new revenue-generating services, increase productivity and exploit the rapid stream of new Internet technologies.
Acxiom Data Network with MineSet will be distributed through the World Wide Web and is expected to be available this fall.
This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding the future relationship between SGI and Acxiom Corporation and the integration of certain SGI technology into certain Acxiom products which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. The reader is cautioned not to rely unduly on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future performance. Such risks and uncertainties include the integration of SGI technology into Acxiom products, the timely development, introduction and release of such integrated products, the impact of competitive markets, projects and pricing, the acceptance of applicable technologies by markets and customers, the ability of the Company to manage a complex set of engineering, marketing and distribution relationships and other risks detailed from time to time in the most recent reports filed with the SEC by SGI and Acxiom.
About Acxiom Corporation
Acxiom provides a wide spectrum of data products, data integration services, mailing list services, modeling and analysis, and information technology outsourcing services, as well as data warehousing and decision support services to major U.S. and international firms. Acxiom is a member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the Individual Reference Services Group (IRSG), and the Online Privacy Alliance (OPA). Acxiom supports the Fair Information Practices standards of these organizations. Founded in 1969, Acxiom is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, with operations throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom, France and Spain. Acxiom's World Wide Web address is http://www.acxiom.com or e-mail to info@acxiom.com. Acxiom's toll free number is 800-922-9466.
About SGI
SGI is a market leader in technical computing, offering the world's most powerful servers, supercomputers and visual workstations. SGI uniquely provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer their toughest computing problems. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with offices worldwide, the company is located on the Web at http://www.sgi.com.