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May 24, 1999

Automated Marketing

Magnifi service eases collaboration

By Jeff Sweat

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agnifi Inc. last week launched Magnifi.Net, an extranet service that will help businesses automate marketing-project processes without requiring them to deploy their own applications.

The startup introduced a packaged marketing automation application late last year, but "marketing departments don't have the capital budgets to deploy applications," says Magnifi CEO Ranjan Sinha. A service, with its monthly fees, can be taken out of monthly promotional budgets.

That strategy appeals to Visa Inc.'s marketing-services department, which expects the service to help it avoid the long approval and deployment process connected with enterprise applications. The San Francisco company is about to test the extranet service, which primarily focuses on passing marketing content and approvals within organizations and to their marketing agency partners.

Visa says Magnifi.Net will let the company transfer over the Internet materials that had always been shipped or faxed, and its Web architecture will let marketing executives weigh in on approvals and creative design while on the road. "We don't have to get all these people in the office at the same time," says Bob Pifke, senior VP of Visa marketing services. "The process will be a lot cheaper, faster, and convenient."

Analysts say Magnifi's marketing-automation capabilities bring structure to marketing departments, where the formal business processes that govern other parts of a company typically aren't in use. That helps users collaborate more easily in marketing strategy and content development, and get marketing materials out more quickly. Says Aberdeen Group analyst Donovan Gow, "Right now, there's a huge amount of waste."

Magnifi.Net will be fully available in July, starting at $5,000 per month for a 50-user configuration.