Unica Rounds Out Suite

Unica unveiled today a new module, called Affinium Plan, to join its Affinium 4 suite of marketing-management applications. The module is a just-in-time window of sorts, into the timing, budgets, coordination, overlap and performance of a marketing department's myriad programs -- all from a single console. The Affinium Plan module joins five other Affinium modules: predictive customer analytics; cross-channel campaign management and execution; e-mail personalization and management; real-time analytics and personalization for online channels; and marketing and customer intelligence reporting. All the modules can be purchased and installed separately. A Unica spokesperson says most deals involve three or more modules, and software prices start at a couple hundred thousand dollars. But Unica contends its software more than pays for itself. Citing an Accenture study, Unica claims 59 percent of marketing executives believe their campaigns would be more effective if they had tools to foster collaboration. Even the ability to measure the effectiveness of a marketing campaign remains a moving target. Simply put, "Marketers are increasingly challenged to do more with less and improve accountability," said Yuchun Lee, CEO and co-founder of Unica, in a statement. While CRM giants pitch solutions addressing three major customer-facing functions -- sales, marketing and customer service -- Unica is solely focused on marketing. And the company believes its powerful analytics tools tuned for the nuances of marketing will win the day in this hotly contested space, which includes rivals such as Siebel, E.piphany and a host of other CRM vendors. For instance, if a marketing department needs to slash its budget by 10 percent, often it would cut across the board. With Affinium, says the spokesperson, the marketing department has the ability to look deeply into its resources and programs and make educated choices about where to cut spending and still meet marketing objectives. Based in Lincoln, Mass., privately-held Unica claims to be profitable and growing revenues 100 percent year-on-year. The company was founded in 1992 and has since grown to more than a hundred employees and 250 customers, which include Nordstrom, Land's End and Bank of Montreal.

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