INFORMATICA AND ECONVERGENT TO INTRODUCE JOINT OFFERING FOR REAL-TIME CUSTOMER DATA INTEGRATION
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. & San Ramon, Calif., June 12, 2002 - Informatica Corporation, the leading provider of business analytics software, and eConvergent, Inc. today announced a joint technology initiative to deliver a complete solution for building and deploying Customer Data Integration (CDI) solutions for the enterprise. Informatica's PowerCenterRT real-time data integration platform will function as the underlying infrastructure to power eConvergent's flagship eMerge application, enterprise software that enables companies to create a Customer Master Index, helping them to analyze customer behavior and dramatically increase the effectiveness of customer interactions. This powerful combination will help companies for the first time to get a 360-degree view of their most important corporate asset - their customers.
“Customer Data Integration is a strategic initiative for enterprise-class companies, one that we believe has the power to revolutionize the way companies do business,” said Diaz Nesamoney, president and COO of Informatica. “By integrating PowerCenterRT and eMerge, Informatica and eConvergent are bringing to market a solution that takes CRM one step further toward delivering true customer intelligence.”
“The key to any CRM architecture is customer data. Starting with customer data and the issues surrounding it is the basis of all CRM architecture discussions,” said Scott Nelson, vice president and research director at Gartner Group. “Enterprises should view customer data as the cornerstone of their CRM strategies and ensure architectural designs that move the right data to the right customer contact point at the right time.”
PowerCenterRT is the first enterprise data integration software platform that enables companies to combine real-time data generated by online systems and EAI applications with historical “time-slice” information stored in enterprise data warehouses. eConvergent's eMerge application continuously correlates, indexes and assembles this data for delivery to applicable views, reports, analytics and CRM applications throughout the enterprise.
This integrated solution will help create the ability to link real-time and historical customer data from throughout the enterprise into a powerful customer master index which can provide unique capabilities to perform correlated customer analyses, sophisticated householding and customer-centric views and reports. While eMerge enables access to data residing throughout the enterprise, security features permit applicable data to be delivered only to authorized users. The customer-centric views, reports and analyses empower any user throughout the enterprise with actionable views customized for that particular user's needs.
“The release of the Informatica PowerCenterRT real-time data integration platform represents a major breakthrough for the CRM industry,” stated Clyde Foster, CEO of eConvergent. “For the last few years, we've seen companies frustrated that their CRM investments were not yielding the ROI they sought. Central to the problem was the inability of their CRM applications and legacy systems to work together to provide customer-facing employees with a complete picture of the information about the relationship with a customer in order to make intelligent customer interaction decisions.”
Continued Foster, “PowerCenterRT and eMerge for the first time bring together the technologies to collect data from disparate applications, data stores and communications channels, and assemble it into a single customer master and unified view - in real time. This powerful technology helps provide company representatives with complete, up-to-date knowledge for every customer.''
Building a Customer Master
eMerge leverages PowerCenterRT to capture customer interactions across all CRM and legacy applications, correlating that information into a clear picture of activity, and presenting it in a single view for the company representative - all in real time. Using company-defined business rules, eMerge Server correlates events between CRM applications, such as new and updated customer records, contact data, case files, and action items, then aligns records in real-time to support the complete customer view. This correlated information is kept in a customer master database that stores customer, agent, household and case history metadata, indexing all customer interactions and historical customer information.
This correlated customer data is then delivered to Informatica analytics applications, CRM applications or assembled in user-defined views and reports. eMerge Viewer filters the data and presents it, either through an existing packaged or custom CRM application, Windows desktops, or any Internet browser. Powered by Informatica, eMerge enables enterprises to get a clear picture of each customer's value and history, all without replacing any existing systems.
Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ: INFA) is the leading provider of business analytics software that helps Global 2000 companies monitor and manage the performance of key business operations across the enterprise. Informatica's business analytics products span the entire “build to buy” spectrum, enabling customers to buy packaged analytic applications or build their own best-of-breed data warehousing solutions -- whichever approach best suits their requirements and resources. More than 1,500 customers worldwide are using Informatica's data integration software to build and manage data warehouses. And, more than 30 leading technology innovators, including Motorola, ConAgra, Brunswick, Brocade, Hewlett-Packard and GE, are using Informatica's packaged analytic applications to successfully monitor and optimize business performance. For more information, call 1.650.385.5000 (1.800.970.1179 in the U.S.), or visit the Informatica Web site at
http://www.informatica.com/eConvergent is the first company to deliver the next generation Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Infrastructure software that allows businesses to connect multiple sources of customer data in real-time - improving revenue, profitability and customer satisfaction. eMerge, the company's flagship product for managing customer interactions, provides companies with the solution they need to connect customer data across multiple applications and optimize customer relationships across the enterprise. eConvergent is one of Information Week's Top 100 Innovative Companies. The company can be reached at (925) 790-2500, 1-888-CRM-FAST, info@econvergent.com or on the Web at www.econvergent.com.
eConvergent, Inc.
