SEDONA and IBM Bring Intarsia to AS/400
SEDONA Corp. (Limerick, Pa.) and the IBM AS/400 Custom Technology Center are joining forces to port Intarsia-- SEDONA’s Internet-based CRM solution--to the AS/400 platform.
Introduced in June, Intarsia is designed specifically for the financial services industry, and targets small and mid-sized companies such as banks and brokerage houses with under six billion dollars in assets. Presently, it runs on the NT and Unix platforms, with AS/400 support slated for the third quarter of 2000.
| Intarsia ties together various pieces of customer or prospect information to give a company a clear picture of both sales and marketing opportunities. |
Intarsia ties together various pieces of customer or prospect information to give a company a clear picture of both sales and marketing opportunities. It manages and analyzes customer information, enabling organizations to acquire more customers, up-sell and cross-sell, and develop initiatives aimed at keeping their best customers.
According to Alyssa Dver, VP of marketing, SEDONA, the relationship between the two companies transpired when SEDONA mentioned to IBM that they were interested in bringing Intarsia to the AS/400 platform. “Financial services is big in the AS/400 market, so we saw it as a perfect fit,” she says.
In turn, the IBM Custom Technology Center voiced interest in bidding for the project. After reviewing several bids, Dver says SEDONA selected IBM “because of their competitive price and implementation timeframe, not to mention their unparalleled expertise on the AS/400.”
“The AS/400 Custom Technology Center is designed to provide customers and partners with AS/400 skills and know-how that are difficult to find anywhere else,” says Richard B. Ross, program manager, IBM Custom Technology Center. “Partnering with SEDONA on bringing their solutions to the AS/400 platform will allow us to address the needs of our mutual customers.”
One of the key differentiators of Intarsia is a component called smart content, which provides organizations with a complete, up-to-the-second picture of a customer or prospect. Smart content combines internal customer or prospect data with third-party information about consumer demographics, behaviors, interests, etc. The data is then analyzed and presented visually to provide timely information on demand, allowing organizations to take advantage of important changes with a customer or prospect before it occurs.
“Smart Content pulls together information from existing back-end data systems to create a profile immediately,” says Dver. “As far as I know, there are no AS/400 CRM solutions that have this ability.”
Two other key components of Intarsia are the Customer Information Management System (CIMS) and Visual Profiling technology. CIMS provides organizations with a predefined suite of software, data, profitability analysis and promotion management tools to ensure that the most profitable customers are not slipping through the cracks. SEDONA’s Visual Profiling technology enables financial institutions to instantly identify and visualize sales and marketing opportunities.
“These financial services want to deliver personalized services to their customers in a profitable way,” says Dver. “Our solution allows them to do that.”
Looking ahead, Dver says SEDONA is very confident that Intarsia will fill a need in the AS/400 financial services industry. “There’s a lot of CRM solutions in the AS/400 marketplace,” she says. “However, there are not a lot of solutions for the financial services industry, specifically for small and medium sized businesses, so we see it as a great opportunity.”
Related Information:
SEDONA Corp. (new window)Intarsia Overview (new window)