Casino operator Harrah's Operating Company Inc. is testing a new mobile-based loyalty program from bCode. Inter­nally, the program is known as "T.I.P." for "Texting Important People." T.I.P., in test mode at Harrah's Atlantic City, Harrah's New Orleans and Show­boat Atlantic City, is an opt-in program that allows guests of Harrah's casinos to receive special offers from the com­pany via text message.

Hasler Inc., a provider of postage and handling products, has deployed two custom CRM applications from Salesforce.com with the help of software-as-a-service (SaaS) consulting firm Bluewolf. The Salesforce offerings are being used by Hasler dealers nationwide, replacing a variety of other systems and creating a standardized database throughout the company.

As the Web plays an increasingly strategic role in customer engagement, marketers are scrambling to better understand, measure and act upon information gleaned from this medium. It has been well-documented that we are in the midst of an information explosion, and the Internet has served as its fuse. Amidst the bits of data that companies try to reassemble on an ongoing basis, perhaps no area has proved as vexing as that of the data generated from the Web.

Acxiom Corp. has acquired Quinetix LLC for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition adds to Acxiom's consumer insight and analytics capabilities and plays into the strategy outlined by the company's CEO and president, John Meyer, when he joined the company in February.

Discovery Communications, the parent company of Discovery Channel and TLC, has signed on as a client of TRA's Media TRAnalytics 370,000-household, single-source database. The database, introduced in February, matches second-by-second information from home set-top boxes to actual product purchases at the household level.

Lodging conglomerate InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has become the first hotel to join the Global Points Exchange (GPX) on Points.com. GPX, which has been operating in beta for a few months, allows users to set values on their earned rewards points and miles from a variety of loyalty programs, and then trade them for points accrued by other GPX members.

In advance of Obama's election victory, it was clear that the US and global economies would be in trouble for a while. Whoever would become President-elect, one lingering consequence would be the need for companies in most, if not all, sectors of the economy to reduce capital expenditures. That didn't mean customer service should have to suffer or that technology expense would cease, but that enterprises would need to find alternative solutions to meet both ends of the customer care requirements: keeping their technology current and meeting customer service goals.

The Kahala Hotel and Resort has signed ClickSquared Inc. to help build its interactive relationship marketing communications program. With ClickSquared, the Kahala will focus on database and e-mail marketing to create personalized interactive communications for its guests, based on their individual preferences.

Media and marketing intelligence firm TNS, which was recently acquired by WPP Group, has launched a new retail and consumer products practice.

M Financial Group has shifted its CRM functions into E-Z Data's hosted SmartOffice platform. Member firms of the national financial services organization will now use SmartOffice practice management and data tools. M Financial also will use E-Z Data's SmartIntegrator, which makes it easier to combine other functionalities and upgrades with the system.