IBM has combined a number of its online marketing software programs into a unified service, called the IBM Marketing Center.
The IBM Smarter Commerce offering has been designed for organizations to outsource their online marketing efforts, eliminating the need to purchase and stitch together new marketing software and hire an IT team to manage it. The service provides the ability to select target customers for a product campaign, to design an email solicitation or Web page, as well as analyze the results of how many people responded to these marketing efforts.
The service uses a number of different technologies from companies that IBM has recently acquired. In 2010, IBM acquired Coremetrics, a firm that provided a commerce-focused Web analytics service. Also that year, IBM purchased online marketing software provider Unica. Organizations are charged on the basis of how many campaigns they run and how many users they reach. “Users just pay for what they consume. There are no upfront capital costs,” Hayman said.
IBM software and services are used to analyze related data from more than $100 billion in commerce transactions a year, IBM estimates. The company counts Bank of America, ConocoPhillips, Expedia, Lenovo, the Norwegian Cruise Line, Staples, and Urban Outfitters as customers. IBM announced that RadioShack will work with IBM to help personalize customer experiences at RadioShack’s 4,700 stores.
Source: pcworld.com
