Event
Summary
Sagent Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: SGNT), a provider of Real-time e-Business
Intelligence solutions, announced a strategic partnership with DSET (Nasdaq:
DSET), a provider of business-to-business e-commerce connectivity solutions
for the global telecommunications marketplace, to enable telecommunications
companies to quickly and efficiently determine a customer's qualification
for digital subscriber line (DSL) service (a customer must be less than
15,500 feet from the switch to qualify for DSL).
Through
the partnership, Sagent's eServices solution will be integrated into DSET's
ezDSL Leads Qualification System, allowing telecommunications companies
to facilitate the real-time pre-qualification of customers for DSL service
based on a customer's geographic information. Sagent maximizes the accuracy
and value of telecommunication companies' customers and prospects information
by seamlessly verifying across multiple platforms, including the Internet,
correct address information, adding widely available third-party demographic
data, and performing spatial analysis from the service point to the customer's
destination. By doing so, the telecommunications customers' proximity
to the local exchange service is determined, enabling more precise and
timely deployments of DSL service.
"We
chose to partner with Sagent because its proven spatial analysis tools
and real-time geographical data are the most accurate available," said
Vikas Trehan, senior product manager, DSET. "Together, we are able to
offer telecommunications customers a single, comprehensive solution for
ordering DSL through one vendor. By automating the entire pre-sales process
for DSL ordering, we are able to offer a higher level of customer service
which DSET customers expect."
Market
Impact
Sagent has moved into the e-business space, and has chosen to start with
Telco applications. Spatial analysis is an important part of e-business,
where web sites provide the closest dealer or access point based on address
or zip code. An example of this is the J.I. Case web site, which uses
spatial analysis to give the customer the closest agricultural equipment
dealer to their location, an increasingly popular method of gaining new
customers. Another example, 2wire.com, is already in the Telco space,
and does similar DSL lookups.
In
addition, Sagent recently purchased Qualitative Marketing Software and
their Centrus Product Suite to provide analytic applications. Centrus
Real-Time claims to enable companies to better understand and predict
customer needs and behavior, compare existing information with current
market trends, and allocate resources to retain the most valuable customers
and acquire new ones.
User
Recommendations
Customers should include Sagent Technology's e-business solutions on a
long list of infrastructure products. In a conversation with TEC, John
Zicker, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of the company, referred
to the technology as a way to provide an "infomediary" to content providers
via the Qualitative software and Sagent solutions. Companies that should
most strongly investigate this solution are expected to initially be in
the vertical industries of Telco, Insurance, and Dot-Com companies.