Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Xchange Team On Total CRM Solutions
BOSTON– Xchange, Inc., who say they specialize in turning customer relationships into profits,
and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, a management consulting and IT services firm, have announced an
alliance to provide businesses with total CRM solutions. The company says these solutions help
businesses earn increased profits from their customer base so that communications are timely,
relevant, personalized, consistent, and delivered through the interaction channel most
preferred by the individual customer.
Xchange says it has been designated a Preferred Partner for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’s CRM
practice and that their product suite will form the core of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’s Real
Time Marketing eCRM solution offering. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young says it will train up to 150
of its consultants to implement Xchange’s industry-leading CRM software by the end of 2001,
dedicate full-time salespeople to selling the solution, and co-market with Xchange.
“Cap Gemini Ernst & Young has a stellar reputation for the CRM consulting and implementation
work it has performed around the world,” said David McFarlane, president and COO of Xchange.
“Further, our two companies share a unique philosophy: that businesses can improve the
profitability of customer relationships by leveraging every customer interaction as an
opportunity to learn more about the customer and earn more of their business. We look forward
to working closely with Cap Gemini to bring the benefits of CRM to their global base of
clients.”
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young says that a survey, conducted by themselves and IDC, found that the
number of CRM solution implementations is increasing rapidly. They say the survey shows that
44% of the enterprises interviewed already have CRM programs in an operational or production
phase, 33% are in a planning or implementation phase, and 23% are in a study or evaluation
phase of the project. According to Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, these results confirm that twice
as many enterprises will use CRM within the next two years and that two out of three
enterprises consider the Internet a key issue for a company’s CRM strategy.
“The emergence of the Internet as a customer communications channel has caused companies to
re-think their CRM strategies,” said Paul Cole, global leader of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’s
CRM Business Unit. “Because Xchange provides some of the industry’s leading technology to
help companies plan, coordinate and execute customer communications across online and
offline channels, they are an excellent alliance partner for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young in
addressing this lucrative market.”
Xchange says their CRM solution consists of five components — analytics, campaign
management, emessaging, real-time channel synchronization and local-level marketing
automation. They say this will enable businesses to identify profitable customer segments,
drive timely, relevant communications across all customer channels, personalize offers in real
time, and measure the results.
“Xchange technology will be integrated into our database marketing solution and featured as a
key vendor in our Centric Group and Accelerated Solutions Labs throughout the country,”
continued Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’s Cole. “This will enhance our capability to rapidly
deliver cross-channel, customer-focused marketing solutions for clients through repeatable
implementations of a pre-integrated, industry-proven technology.”