Business Signatures Launches Customer Intent Management Solution to Solve Biggest Problems Facing Online Businesses
Industry veterans launch new venture with groundbreaking Intent Processor™
technology platform and blue-chip customers
REDWOOD SHORES, CALIF, July 11, 2005 -- Business Signatures Corporation today emerged
from a four-year stealth phase to unveil an innovative software solution called Business
Signatures Customer Intent Suite™. Based on new data management technology, it is designed
to help companies discern the intent of their online customers in real time – and act upon it
immediately. Business Signatures launches with an impressive array of customers, including
Geico, H&R Block, ING Direct, safeway.com, TXU Energy and myFamily Inc.
Business Signatures set out to solve the three biggest challenges facing online businesses today:
managing IT infrastructure to provide a robust and responsive customer experience; preventing
online fraud to minimize financial losses; and maximizing customer profitability through
personalized customer service. To do this, Business Signatures focused on the one problem not
currently addressed by existing solutions: understanding customers’ online interactions as they
happen, at scale and at the individual customer and transaction level. Its solution gives
companies an instantaneous view of customer intent: what online customers are trying to do in
the moment. Armed with this unique insight, companies can act immediately to service, protect
and, ultimately, retain their customers.
Peter Relan, founder and CEO of Business Signatures, said: “In the physical world, “customer
intent” is obvious because you can see or talk to customers as they conduct business with you.
Discerning actionable “customer intent” in the online channel is another matter entirely. It
requires understanding customer interactions in real time, at scale, down to the individual
customer – and doing so securely, without compromising customer privacy. In partnership with
some of the world’s leaders in online commerce, we’ve spent the last four years developing and
deploying the technology and solutions to achieve this capability.”
Groundbreaking technology
The technological innovation behind the product is the Business Signatures Intent Processor™,
which is based on a new data management technology called “streaming query.” Traditional
database engines take a “store first, query later” approach for after-the-fact analysis. As
seasoned ex-Oracle executives, Business Signatures’ founders knew that this approach would
not work for the Internet. They developed a “query first, store later” solution that can rapidly
convert the massive volumes of HTTP data streams generated by a transactional Web site into
chunks of immediately intelligible information – or “business signatures.” These business
signatures represent milestones of individual customer intent, such as “add to basket” or “set up
funds transfer.”
Business Signatures’ Customer Intent Suite is available as a set of totally non-intrusive, secure
solutions. The first solution is Customer Impact Management and focuses on providing a robust
and responsive customer experience. Available now, it has already been successfully deployed
by Business Signatures customers. Solutions for Fraud and Profit Management are currently in
beta test and will launch later this year and early 2006 respectively.
Blue-chip customers
Marc West, senior vice president and chief information officer of H&R Block, said: “Our goal at
H&R Block is to provide our customers with an exceptional online experience across our tax,
mortgage, brokerage and retail businesses, and consistent service however and whenever they
choose to interact with us. Business Signatures gives me the ability to meet this goal, with a
breakthrough technology that delivers unprecedented capabilities.”
Customer intent management
Robert Blumstein, research director, CRM Analytics and Marketing Applications, IDC,
commented: “There are many point products that aim to analyze the activity of online businesses
– from traffic to conversion to service monitoring software. Business Signatures has successfully
brought together an innovative, unifying technology and capability that focuses on the in-session
measurement and management of customer intent.”
Business Signatures’ founders gained unique insight into the problem of discerning actionable
customer intent while building and operating the technology and CRM platform at Webvan, which
garnered over a million online customers.
Ram Shriram, director and founding investor in Business Signatures, added: “Business
Signatures technology provides a level of actionable visibility and immediacy that very few online
business have come close to achieving, even after spending tens of millions of dollars on
proprietary systems.”
About Business Signatures Corp.
Business Signatures™ was founded in 2001 by three former Oracle Corp. executives. The
company offers solutions that solve the three biggest challenges facing online businesses today:
managing IT to provide a reliable customer experience; preventing online fraud and risk; and
maximizing customer profitability. Business Signatures accomplishes this by understanding
customer intent: discerning what online customers are trying to do in the moment, rather than
analyzing aggregate customer behavior after the fact. Business Signatures is a private company
headquartered in Redwood Shores, California. Its customers include some of the biggest names
in financial services and e-commerce, such as Geico, H&R Block, ING Direct and safeway.com.
For more information, please see www.businesssignatures.com.
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© Copyright 2005 Business Signatures Corporation. All rights reserved
Press Contact
Bite Communications -- Andrea Heuer
andrea.heuer@bitepr.com -- (415) 365 0366
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