Exchange Applications Inc., Boston, said today that it has changed its name to Xchange Inc., and also announced the debut of its new, packaged eCRM solution suite, Xchange 4.0.
Xchange 4.0 integrates all of what was formally known as Exchange Applications products and services into one suite. The solution contains all of the essential elements of eCRM — campaign management, analytics, e-mail marketing and Web personalization — strengthening Xchange's leadership position in the eCRM space.
The availability of the new suite and the re-branding of the company reflects Xchange's evolution from a single-product marketing applications company to a fully integrated, multi-product eCRM solutions provider expressly for click-and-mortar businesses, according to Xchange.
In particular, the new brand name Xchange represents the interactive nature of the company's solutions, and the fact that its offerings aren't restricted to just applications.
Indeed, a key part of Xchange’s transformation is the fact that all of Xchange’s software is now ASP-enabled, providing organizations with the choice of either in-house software or a hosted solution. The solutions will also be available on CDs.
“The ASP market presents tremendous opportunities in terms of reaching mid-sized companies,” said Andy Frawley, Xchange's CEO. “We're finding that many of these companies who don't have the resources for in-house eCRM solutions are interested in hosted models.”
Xchange 4.0 consists of four product and service families: Xchange Dialogue (formally the company’s flagship campaign management software product, Valex); Exchange Optimizer; Xchange Real Time; and Xchange Solution Services.
These product/service families are designed to help companies:
Build and strengthen interactive relationships between customers and companies;
Leverage customer information to zero-in on customers with the greatest profit potential and market to them effectively;
Reach out to customers via highly personalized, permission-based email and Web interactions;
Automate the creation and execution of customer communications, allowing marketing teams to focus on analysis rather than planning;
Effectively measure the impact of outbound communications in terms of acquisition and retention, click-throughs, purchases, ROI and more.
“Xchange 4.0 was specifically designed to confront the business challenges of click-and-mortars and dot-coms, who need to communicate with customers and prospects both offline and via the Web,” Frawley said. “Its cross-channel nature and unique real-time decisioning abilities empower e-businesses to tailor communications to multiple customer segments across all channels, increasing the effectiveness of marketing initiatives and earning a higher ROI on marketing dollars.”
Analysts agree, and believe these types of solutions will make up the majority of database marketing offerings in the future.
“Niche, point-solution vendors will be quickly subsumed because they can't keep up with the needs of e-businesses,” said Sam Clark, senior research analyst at the Meta Group. “Companies such as Xchange that continually anticipate market needs and evolve their solution set are positioned to lead the next era of innovation in the dynamic, growing eCRM market.”
Xchange has also undertaken an aggressive development effort to re-design the user interfaces of its existing products, and design future products with a consistent look and feel so that users have a more seamless experience as they move from product to product.
Xchange 4.0 to make its debut this week at Internet World in Los Angeles.
