Behavioral Analytics Come to CRM

Products to be demonstrated by WebTrends Corp., Broadbase Software Inc. and Personify Inc. at this weeks DCI Customer Relationship Management Conference in Chicago share a focus on helping online companies get a better understanding of customer behavior.

WebTrends will unveil its Data Conduit for Siebel at the show. Targeted for general release next month, Data Conduit allows users of Siebel Systems Inc.s Call Center application to gain access to behavioral data on users from their visits to the companys Web site.

Sales and service professionals using Call Center can see what products customers have shown interest in on the site, what marketing campaigns theyve responded to and what technical inquiries theyve made. The software can also tailor a call center representatives efforts accordingly, for example, by presenting cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, said officials at WebTrends, in Portland, Ore.

Broadbases eService Analytics 4.5, which will also be unveiled at the DCI show, will help companies get a better fix on customer behavior, as well. The product is the Menlo Park, Calif., companys first release since completing its acquisition of customer service software vendor Servicesoft Technologies Inc. in December.

Due for release next month, eService Analytics 4.5 integrates Servicesofts customer contact center solution with Broadbases analytics and campaign management software in one package. It allows companies to gain insights into customer behavior at multiple contact points—Web, call center, e-mail—and develop marketing campaigns in response to what they find.

National TechTeam Inc., a Southfield, Mich., company that outsources IT help desk services for its clients, has been using Broadbases and Servicesofts technology for about a year in a product called TechTeam Support Portal.

The portal lets the company offer a support solution from Servicesoft enhanced with knowledge management capabilities from Broadbase. This solution is connected to an incident tracking system from Oracle Corp. and analytics from Broadbase that enable the customer to build a data mart for reporting and analysis.

“Our goal is to create a three-legged stool,” said Doug Tayler, vice president of sales and marketing at National TechTeam. “We can provide a much more interactive analysis of whats going on in the individual call center and give our clients an improved call center environment. And through knowledge management, we can improve the efficiency of our technicians.”

The package lets National TechTeam offer more self-service options so that clients can help themselves on the Web, reducing their call center volume. “Were pleased that two of the three legs of our stool are together now,” Tayler said. “It should make further development projects we do easier.” Pricing for Broadbase eService Analytics 4.5 starts at $150,000.

Meanwhile, San Francisco-based Personify last week unveiled its Personify Customer Intelligence platform, which combines online data from Web log files and offline data from transaction histories, call centers and registrations into customer behavior profiles that can be used to drive Web site personalization or marketing campaigns.