Alterian Acquires Contact Optimization Technology

Alterian (LSE:ALN), the leading global provider of software for Analytically Led Integrated Marketing, announced today it has acquired all intellectual property and rights for the software product Campaign Calculus 2.0 from The Customer Partnership. Based in London and led by highly regarded marketing specialist Julian Berry, The Customer Partnership is a consultancy and software provider which has been focused on delivering marketing optimization capabilities for the past 10 years. Campaign Calculus is contact optimization software used by clients such as JD Williams and the Automobile Association. Contact optimization is ideal in situations where balance is required between products, channels and budgets or marketers must understand the impact of conditions and opportunity costs when projecting campaign plans forward in time. Campaign Calculus utilizes advanced algorithms to quickly and efficiently evaluate the financial impact of all of the possible permutations for contacting an individual across channels and offers over time, while incorporating business rules and constraints such as return on investment requirements, customer preferences and channel capacity to determine the best course of action. Campaign Calculus can be employed either as a strategic planning tool or in providing optimized individual campaign selections. Alterian will make Campaign Calculus immediately available through its global partner network, adding strategic planning and contact optimization capabilities to its award-winning Alterian Marketing Services Platform. It is expected to prove attractive to many of Alterian’s current user base of over 400 organizations worldwide, as well as to prospective Alterian users. The Customer Partnership has also entered into a strategic alliance with Alterian to support the launch and roll-out of Campaign Calculus by Alterian and its partners. As online and offline channels emerge and integrate, consumer sophistication increases, and the pressure for financial accountability dramatically escalates the complexity of marketing, it is now critical for marketers to optimize their campaigns across products, channels and offers. Suresh Vittal, senior analyst at Forrester Research’s Marketing Strategy and Technology research team states that, "Many firms have worked hard to identify their best — most profitable, responsive, and loyal — customers. However, these same firms often take a product-centric approach to customer communications in which product lines vie for the attention of the same customers, often with conflicting messages. The inevitable result? The best customers are alienated — the exact opposite of what marketers wish to achieve. In environments where many campaigns and products are targeted toward the same customer, contact optimization helps match the best messages to each customer — instead of the best customers to each message.”1 Don Patrick, chief operating officer at Merkle, commented, "Marketers are under severe pressure to show results in an increasingly difficult environment. At Merkle we pride ourselves on helping marketers make the most of their marketing efforts and optimization capabilities have quickly become a major competitive differentiator. Our clients realize that basic segmentation based on transaction history and demographics is simply not enough. They are demanding the ability to fully leverage the entirety of their marketing data and situational knowledge to make holistic marketing decisions.” The marketing optimization functionality of Campaign Calculus is highly complementary to the Alterian Marketing Services Platform’s existing strengths in analytics, campaign management, marketing resource management and marketing execution. Luke McKeever, executive vice president of corporate development at Alterian said, "The only way to practically take all of the factors driving marketing performance into account is by integrating scenario-driven optimization technology into the marketing process. Campaign Calculus is a natural extension of Alterian’s functional breadth and shows our commitment to Analytically Led Integrated Marketing.” Julian Berry, director of The Customer Partnership, added, "Campaign Calculus brings significant financial and strategic planning benefits to marketers. This transaction provides the product with broad, global distribution and we are delighted to be working with Alterian to bring this product to its partners and end-users who, as some of the most sophisticated marketers in the world, stand to benefit tremendously from marketing optimization.” About Alterian Alterian (LSE:ALN) is the leading global provider of software for Analytically Led Integrated Marketing – making it practical and cost effective for marketers to gain insight into their data and use this to drive an integrated marketing strategy, across multiple online and offline channels, from a single set of applications and infrastructure. A global community of over 70 business partners, including many of the leading providers of services to marketers such as Accenture, Acxiom, Allant Group, Carlson Marketing Group, Experian, Epsilon, InfoUSA, Harte-Hanks, Merkle, Ogilvy One and Euro RSCG Worldwide, deliver the Alterian Marketing Services Platform alongside their own value-added services. These solutions empower market leaders like Princess Cruises, General Motors, Zurich, HSBC, Starz Entertainment, Limited Too, Dell, Amnesty International and Vodafone, to drive competitive advantage through improved marketing performance and customer satisfaction. Alterian was founded in 1997 and listed on the techMARK Index of the London Stock Exchange in 2000. With offices throughout North America and Europe, Alterian software is used in over 20 countries worldwide. www.alterian.com About The Customer Partnership (TCP) TCP is a product development and innovation consultancy focused entirely on making direct and on-line marketing more effective. The founders, Julian Berry and Roger Ivey, have been intimately involved in evolving traditional propensity modeling and campaign management into modern-day marketing optimization techniques. Campaign Calculus has been developed over time with extensive client involvement and has been tested in many different vertical markets. www.thecustomerpartnership.com 1 Understanding Contact Optimisation Technology, Forrester Research Inc., September 20, 2006