Sightward`s Customer Centric Reports and Forecasting Accuracy Help Direct Marketers Maximize ROI

Affordable Service Puts Predictive Analytics Within Reach Retail And Direct Marketers

BELLEVUE, Wash., Nov. 4 -- Sightward, a predictive analytics software and services provider, today announced it is upgrading its Hosted Service offering with new customer centric reporting and forecasting capabilities that deliver the insight retail and direct marketers need to optimize their house files and create more profitable campaigns. Version 2.0 of Sightward`s Hosted Service fully automates the modeling process and delivers actionable reports that predict customer behavior with unsurpassed accuracy, enabling direct marketers to increase campaign responses, reduce churn, promote customer retention and boost customer acquisition. An ASP version of the service for retailers will be available later this year.

"Sightward`s Hosted Service gave us the confidence to implement a marketing trial using a modeled approach," said Chien Le, Customer Relationship Management Manager for a leading provider of wireless services. "Sightward`s team of experts worked directly with me to find the most predictive statistical model based on my campaign objectives. That model predicted which customers had the highest propensity to respond to my mailing. They`ve done a remarkable job of turning a complex technology, like predictive modeling, into a practical business tool that helps me better understand our customers, and predicts how many customers will respond to our promotion even before we mail the offer."

Hosted Services customers have the option of using Sightward`s patent pending analytics themselves or working with Sightward`s expert statisticians to automatically create predictive models with the highest, validated results for a particular business objective. Sightward also provides a powerful web based forecasting and reporting environment where direct marketers can compare what-if analysis of different campaign variables, choose the optimum campaign strategy, and perform post-campaign analysis -- all from the convenience of their desktop.

"The hosted services model provides two important features customers need before making an investment in technology -- affordability and a quick ROI," said Gareth Herschel, research director, Gartner. "For companies that cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars for analytics software or hire experts to manually build models, outsourcing predictive analytics software is a economical option."

Forecasting Tools Maximize Return on Direct Marketing Investments
Sightward`s Hosted Service combines the highest performing models with actionable reports that make limited marketing dollars go farther and work harder. For direct marketers using traditional list segmentation methods, such as RFM (recency, frequency, monetary), Sightward makes the science of precise targeting easy, accessible and affordable.

Only Sightward provides the necessary insight to optimize spend and determine the best strategy before investing in a campaign. Customer centric forecasting tools extract accurate, reliable, real-life marketing results from customer data to maximize results and optimize direct marketing expenditures.

A broad assortment of ROI calculators play an important role in determining the optimum list depth according to specific objectives such as, maximizing ROI, maximizing reach and breaking even. Two new calculators, Variable Cost Per Contact and Multi Category, add increased flexibility to analyze campaign outcomes, predict response rates and forecast profitability.

After a campaign has been implemented, Sightward continues to provide value with a post-campaign analysis tool that automates the time consuming task of manually tracking and comparing results against original campaign projections. The post-analysis comparison extends Sightward`s functionality as a full-service solution that delivers the insight and validation direct marketers need to ensure a successful campaign from beginning to end.

"Based on customer feedback ease we are raising the bar on usability and adding more customer centric reports that ensure accuracy," said Will Hodgman, Sightward`s president and CEO. "Over the coming months, we will take the service to the next level by developing unique features for specific verticals and packaging them into a simpler, more accessible ASP offering. Given our initial success with retail customers such as Sur La Table and Illuminations, we plan to introduce an ASP solution for retailers followed by vertical- specific services for additional markets."

Pricing and Availability
Version 2.0 of Sightward`s Hosted Service is now available. Pricing begins at $4,000 per month. Multiple campaign discounts are available.

About Sightward
Sightward develops predictive analytics software and services that provide marketers the intelligence to maximize profitability from online and offline initiatives by predicting customer response with unsurpassed accuracy and affordability. The Sightward solution, available as either an outsourced service or licensed product, delivers the power of predictive science to marketers in all industries, particularly data intensive retail, financial services and telecommunications environments. Sightward was founded in 1999 and can be reached at 425-688-9921 or www.sightward.com.

CONTACT:
Frances Bigley
Barokas Public Relations
+1-206-344-3136
frances@barokas.com