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February 12, 2001

Customers Come Into Focus With Combination Software

A host of new products combine CRM and business-intelligence technologies

By Rick Whiting (rwhiting@cmp.com)

More on customer intelligence:

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sers of Siebel Systems Inc. customer-relationship management applications now can find out more about their customers' Web behavior. Software from WebTrends Corp. is the latest in a flurry of efforts by vendors to combine CRM and business-intelligence technologies.

WebTrends markets the CommerceTrends VRM (visitor-relationship management) Platform, which collects data about visitors' behavior. WebTrends' Data Conduit for Siebel lets salespeople, customer-support representatives, and other Siebel CRM users pull that clickstream data into the Siebel system for viewing and analysis.

Armed with that information, sales reps might better understand customers' needs, and call-center workers can assist customers who've made technical inquiries on a Web site. The technology is available now for $100,000.

Another CRM-business intelligence partnership is between Onyx Software Corp. and Cognos Inc. Onyx is building Cognos' business-intelligence tools into its sales, marketing, and customer-support apps. By midyear, users will be able to analyze data generated by the applications. "Analytics is the big trend in CRM this year," says Jupiter Research analyst David Daniels. The Cognos deal is a "smart move" for Onyx because analytics isn't its core competency, he says.

The NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and Oregon Arena Corp., operator of Portland's Rose Garden arena, are installing Cognos software to pull data from Onyx CRM applications that were installed two years ago. Analysis of that data should help forecast advertising revenue and spot ticket-sale trends, says database marketing director Tony Cesarano.

Also this week, Broadbase Software Inc. says its new E-Service suite combines customer-analysis software with the applications it acquired when it bought Servicesoft Inc. in December. The suite will be available this spring. Additionally, business-intelligence vendor MicroStrategy Inc. recently began selling analytical CRM applications, priced from $20,000.