Six Degrees of Maturation

Experian today announced the release of six new solutions targeted to improve multichannel marketing performance. Following the release of the MarketOne platform at the DMA Conference in 2005, Experian came out with solutions built upon this technology base at this year's conference in San Francisco. The new solutions include an upgrade of the analysis tool--Prospectve, the first tool built on MarketOne--as well Atlas, a solution to improve customer relations. Experian also added advanced modeling solutions to its Cooperative Databases, launched a new Online List Fulfillment tool, and released the VeriScore for Financial services solution. Additionally, Experian announced an increase in investments in its consulting practice to bring a human voice and expertise to its clients. Rick Erwin, senior vice president of marketing and product development for Experian Marketing Services, says that the company created its new tool sets to fill the new needs of direct multichannel marketers. "The overarching trend is that because consumers have so much more choice in the way they interact with companies than they used to, so marketing companies are looking for better ways to find buy-ready consumers. All of these solutions relate back to the this goal." These new releases play directly to Experian's expected road map as it was laid out with the launch of MarketOne. The newly enhanced Prospectvue, which adds on channel attribution to the solution's capabilities, sits on top of MarketOne. Erwin explains the importance of the new channel attribution feature: "To optimize marketing investments you have to understand which campaign investment drove response and action." The newly released Atlas compliments Prospectvue's customer acquisition imperative with customer retention support that enables clients to deepen their customer relationships to make them more profitable. As these solutions both operate off the same platform, they operate together and can be managed in one place. With these new solutions, Experian is launching VeriScore for Financial Services, which adds on the company's background of advanced credit screening. However, Liz Roche, managing partner at Customers Incorporated says, "Experian's focus has shifted over the past few years, recognizing that a panoramic view of the customer is not just about understanding a customer's credit risk, but is also about combining information from across multiple channels." Roche explains that with Experian's recent separation from the business services company, GUS, it makes sense for Experian to be looking towards multichannel services. While Roche sees all of Experian's developments as increasing the company's competitiveness, she says the investment in consulting is one of the most noteworthy. "Service providers have traditionally been quite weak in the business consulting arena, focusing instead on more sophisticated tech support. So this is excellent progress." Related articles: Experian Uses Smaller Stones in Its Mosaic, and Acquires More Do Sweat the Small Stuff Experian Pays For Having Misled Consumers