Successful companies globally and in South Africa are initiating one-to-one marketing strategies, establishing personalised customer relationships tailored to their specific individual needs and preferences.
Now this is taken one step further, with technology enabling companies to reach people with individualised information at crucial decision-making moments, no matter where they happen to be.
Through this e-business application, from Dimension Data and MicroStrategy - a leading global provider of intelligent e-business software and services -, personalised information is actively delivered via the Web and fax, but more importantly for South Africa, via the telephone and mobile phones.
"The technology personalises every call, ensuring the company's message is heard in spoken words for fast effective communication that people prefer and respond to. Mission-critical information can be sent quicker, reaching more people - wherever they may be," says Guy Roberts, from the I-commerce division of the Dimension Data Group, which represents MicroStrategy locally.
Roberts provides an example of the power of MicroStrategy Telecaster. "Picture this. You are on medication for a variety of chronic ailments and yet are still at work holding down a demanding job. A major pharmaceutical company initiates a program that notifies you automatically by phone when you should take your prescription drugs every time you need to, as well as the amount and type of medication, ensuring you do not forget to take your medicine. In the same call, you also have the ability to request a refill or other drugs."
"In this way, the pharmaceutical company has initiated an intelligent dialogue with the customer and the customer benefits from the convenience." Roberts says the technology offers countless opportunities to build and foster intimate relationships. "These dialogues are never an intrusion though as they are permission based," he stresses.
The application of the MicroStrategy analytical engine and Telecaster extends far beyond the health industry to financial services, travel, entertainment and any number of other fields. "In sectors such as finance, where one is dealing in stock price fluctuations, fast, effective communication is vital," says Roberts.
"With MicroStrategy Telecaster, companies can project relevant, personalised information to touch people wherever they are and build stronger customer relationships," he says.
Embedding high-end computer telephony (CTI) modules and real-time text-to-speech (TTS) technology, MicroStrategy Telecaster provides a solution that enables companies across all industries to take full advantage of their information in next generation e-business and knowledge management applications.
In addition, a key component of Telecaster's functionality is the dynamic generation of Active Voice Pages (AVPs). This patent pending innovation is based on the Extended Markup Language (XML) standard and successfully combines data analysis, web and telephony technology for a 'best of all worlds' concept for intelligent knowledge retrieval.
Like a customised web page, AVPs allow users to access personalised information, selectively jump to different sections using hyperlinked menu options and enter information at given prompts by simply using their telephone dial-pad. Unlike static telephony applications, all aspects of an AVP are fully personalised and dynamically generated.
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Microstrategy
MicroStrategy is a leading worldwide provider of e-business intelligence software and related services. MicroStrategy's product line, MicroStrategy Suite, enables both proactive and interactive delivery of information from large-scale databases, providing Global 2000 enterprises a platform for developing solutions that deliver insight and intelligence to their enterprise, supply-chain, and customers.
MicroStrategy's platform enables users to query and analyse the most detailed, transaction-level databases, turning data into business intelligence. In addition to supporting internal enterprise users, MicroStrategy's platform delivers critical business information beyond corporate boundaries to customers, partners and supply chain constituencies through a broad range of pull and push technology such as the Internet, e-mail, telephones, pagers and other wireless communications devices.
MicroStrategy's platform is ideal for developing e-business solutions that are personalised and proactive, and that reach millions of users. MicroStrategy also offers a comprehensive set of consulting, training and support services for its customers and partners.
MicroStrategy has over 750 customers across such diverse industries as retail, telecommunications, finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and consumer packaged goods.
Representative MicroStrategy customers include American Express Travel Services, CVS Pharmacy, Harris Teeter, IMS America, Kmart, MCI WorldCom, Merck-Medco, Nike, and Ralston Purina. MicroStrategy has also entered into relationships with more than 185 systems integration, application development and platform partners, including Axiom, HNC Software, IBM, NCR, and Oracle.
For more information, please visit MicroStrategy's Web site: http://www.microstrategy.com.
Telecaster
MicroStrategy's business intelligence architecture provides Telecaster with the most sophisticated data analysis and delivery platform available to the industry.
Proven to handle millions of personalised messages in self-managing applications, MicroStrategy Telecaster maximises functionality for subscription, personalisation and one-to-one exception monitoring.
Telecaster is designed for easy integration with customer service and e-business applications. A fully exposed API allows customers to customise and extend the rich out-of-the box functionality. All embedded telephony modules follow widely accepted standards and protocols. Features include sensitive voice recognition that can differentiate between live responders and voice mail. MicroStrategy Telecaster is optimised for all available phone and voice mail systems as well as wireless devices.
By virtue of the most sophisticated computer-generated speech technology, MicroStrategy Telecaster processes every call dialogue with high-quality sound. Using a patented method of advanced speech algorithms all AVP components are transformed in real-time and simulate lifelike voice patterns and speech. Foreign language support and various voice types are attained by an extensible plug-in architecture that supports parallel usage of multiple text-to-speech engines.
Dimension Data & SPL
Dimension Data Holdings is South Africa's largest Information Technology integration company with turnover of R4,7-billion (1997/98). Based in Johannesburg and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Group is fast becoming a global organisation with offices in Asia, Australia and the United Kingdom. Its subsidiary, Datacraft Asia, is listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Singapore.
SPL, part of the Dimension Data Group, has long been recognised as a high value IT partner to South African corporations and government. The company focuses on customer management, information management and enterprise systems-Commerce