Vendor Expands Response Capabilities In CRM SoftwareVendor Expands Response Capabilities In CRM Software

Customer-relationship management efforts often focus on E-marketing campaigns and online sales pitches. But how well do businesses respond when customers come to them?

The DD Series software from Data Distilleries BV analyzes data about customers who call, visit a Web site, or reply to a marketing E-mail. DD Series integrates historical data about customers from multiple back-end sources, combines it with information about the customer call or response, analyzes it in real time, and--using predictive-analysis tools--prepares an offer or response. Predictive-analysis and pattern-recognition capabilities also identify high-risk and potentially fraudulent customers.

"There's a fast-growing interest in software that can detect patterns in customer data and make offers to customers in real time," says Erin Kinikin, a Giga Information Group analyst.

FBTO Insurance in Lavarden, Netherlands, has used DD Series for two years to generate mailing lists for direct-mail campaigns. "We reduced our mailing costs by 50% and made our investment back in one year by better targeting our mailings," says Jeroen Pronk, a database marketer at FBTO. The company is installing the new release, which will work with more current customer data.

Earlier versions of DD Series focused on CRM analysis, but the new release expands response capabilities, says Gartner research director Gareth Herschel. Although many CRM analysis are tools on the market, DD Series' real-time capabilities give it a competitive edge, he adds.

Available now, DD Series 3.0 includes dynamic prioritization features for developing offers based not only on the likelihood of acceptance but on the value to the customer. The new release also maintains a log of offers and responses in each channel.

The product can be integrated with back-end data sources and CRM systems, the latter including Siebel Systems Inc.'s call-center and marketing applications and BroadVision Inc.'s self-service apps. A DD Series implementation is priced at $150,000 to $500,000.