Case Study

Amentra Implements Large Scale Campaign Management Platform

Service:
Enterprise Data Solutions
Industry:
Finance
Engagement
Product Selection, Analysis & Design
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Reduced campaign cycle time from months to weeks & reduced errors for large financial services company

Before Amentra

Amentra partnered with a major financial institute to architect and implement an enterprise-wide campaign management platform for the development and execution of proactive marketing campaigns. Prior to implementation, campaigns were developed and executed manually. There were no standard campaign management tools or platforms and campaigns were developed with ad hoc tools, including spreadsheets, SQL files, and user tables. Analysts ran custom SQL scripts, stored procedures, and SAS models to identify target accounts. There were few common processes across business lines and the processes that were followed lacked sufficient controls (auditing, security, monitoring), provided no centralized information store for offers made to customers, and were generally inefficient.

After Amentra

  • Unica's Affinium campaign management software and the Teradata data warehouse platform were combined to create a massively scalable campaign management platform
  • A standardized integration strategy now exists for interfacing with downstream fulfillment systems
  • Offer history information is now centralized and stored within the Teradata warehouse
  • Improved security and controls reduce the chance of self-dealing and improve auditablity
  • Improved accuracy, shorter cycle times, reduced errors

Evolution Of The Infrastructure

Amentra helped solve several critical business challenges.

No common campaign management tools or platform
Different processes and data were used across the company. Amentra worked on the architecture for the new campaign management platform, was part of the vendor selection process, provided valuable insight for new business processes, and also played a major role in the technical implementation.
Long cycle times for campaign development
Amentra worked with the company to define streamlined development and execution processes. The campaign management platform was rolled out throughout the company. The new platform provides a GUI interface that allows analysts to visually develop campaigns and provides a wealth of features for performing exclusions, segmentation, and offer assignment.
Insufficient validation and controls
Analysts were too close to data that was sent directly to various production systems. Amentra architected security mechanisms and an integration strategy to isolate production systems from analysts.
No centralized interface mechanism to downstream systems
The final architecture specified standard interfaces and a reliable integration strategy.

Key results include the following:

  • Reduced Campaign Cycle Time from Months to Weeks
  • Increase in the number of Campaigns, More Frequent Runs
  • Improved Quality, Reduced Errors
  • Standardized Integration Strategy
  • Central Offer History Information
  • Improved Security & Controls
  • Common Campaign Management Platform

Applied Technologies and Expertise

Amentra was originally brought in to architect the system and our project team quickly got involved in other aspects of the project. The following highlights our areas of involvement:

  • Campaign Management RFP Development
  • Vendor Analysis & Selection
  • System Technical Requirements
  • Functional Requirements Review
  • System Architecture
  • Integration Strategy
  • Platform Selection
  • Performance Testing
  • Security Architecture
  • Database design
  • Development and QA environments
  • System Design
  • System Operating Procedures
  • System Implementation

Key Technologies

Campaign Management:
Unica Affinium Campaign 4.6.x, 6.x
Platform:
Sun Solaris 8.x, HP HPUX 11
Middleware:
BEA Weblogic
Database:
Teradata v5r2, Microsoft SQL Server
ETL:
Ab Initio