Acxiom Corp., a customer data integration solutions vendor, is expanding its AbiliTec license options to give customers additional flexibility in how they use the software, the company said yesterday.
Immediately available, the AbiliTec Database License expands the market for AbiliTec by allowing companies to use the software in the management of a single database with the option of upgrading in the future to an enterprise license to create enterprisewide customer relationship management systems.
“Many of our customers have begun to recognize the advantage of using AbiliTec across their enterprises, and the AbiliTec Enterprise License was offered with those customers in mind,” said Charles Morgan, Acxiom company leader. “But now AbiliTec licenses will be offered to customers who want to integrate customer data with the unprecedented speed and accuracy of AbiliTec, while applying the license to only one database for one application.”
Scott Nelson, vice president and research director at GartnerGroup, a research and consulting firm, said, “While CRM efforts ideally should be enterprisewide, the reality is that today they're usually adopted department by department. … Giving companies the opportunity to address customer relationships at the department level allows companies to take a step toward enterprise CRM without having to make an immediate enterprise dollar investment.”
Acxiom, Little Rock, AR, yesterday also introduced AbiliTec-Enabled Services, a new category of AbiliTec-powered Acxiom offerings. These new services will use AbiliTec software in the creation and delivery of prepackaged, application-specific Acxiom service solutions.
The four AbiliTec-Enabled Services announced yesterday are:
• Acxiom Customer Preference Solution. CPS was designed to provide immediate help to commercial banks, brokerage services, insurance companies and other financial institutions that are approaching a July 1, 2001, deadline to comply with privacy regulations of the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. CPS, a turnkey solution powered by AbiliTec with a short implementation cycle, allows a company not only to comply with privacy laws but also to better capture and apply customer preferences relative to data sharing and one-to-one marketing initiatives.
• Acxiom Mergers & Acquisitions Solution. Powered by AbiliTec, this solution is designed to help businesses segment, analyze, retain and expand relationships and build customer trust amid the upheaval of mergers.
• Acxiom AbiliTec-Enabled Customer Information File Clean-Up Solution. Years ago, most banks consolidated their customer information into central files that were tied to their operational systems that supported loans, saving accounts and investment services. This AbiliTec solution provides an opportunity to improve the accuracy of this aging and inaccurate information.
• Acxiom AbiliTec-Enabled Merge Purge Service. This service offers improved accuracy in merging information and purging duplicates, and the faster performance allows customers to reach the market more quickly.
Of the new family of products, Nelson said, “The AbiliTec-Enabled Solutions represents the sort of thing that we expect to see more of in the marketplace. Businesses are finding that it is easier to buy bundled products and solutions rather then having to create their own solution from components.”
A limited-use AbiliTec license will be included with these new AbiliTec-Enabled Services, and revenue will be recognized along with the service, typically monthly over the contract term.
