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April 2008: Precious goodwill would be lost when promotional messages sent via mobile phones are considered irrelevant and annoying by the user.
But it’s a sad fact in marketing that a huge volume of messages sent as SMS (short message service) text are "untargeted marketing", and regarded as spamming.
To counter this, Genovate Solutions, a Singapore-based system integration company providing IT solutions, training and product development, has launched a Customer Service Intelligence Discovery software catering to the needs of not only the marketer/retailer but also the customer.
CSI Discovery delivers targeted promotion of relevant promotions to customers at the right location and at the appropriate time. So, while you’re shopping in the supermarket, usually in the basement of a large mall, you might receive a SMS informing you that upstairs at your favourite bookstore, a new range of titles are now available. The message to you is based on the fact that not too long ago, you have bought books on the same subject.
Genovate’s CEO Anton Ravindran explained that this is made possible by integrating technologies such as location-based tracking, data mining, machine learning, an Inference Engine, and the appropriate modern telecommunication system (SMS and e-mail) to launch an intelligent campaign and making it relevant to specific customers.
The CSI Discovery software has artificial intelligence capability that links to the vendor’s promotion campaigns. When a customer is located to be nearby, the AI is smart enough to send the customer a very specific message that caters only to the customer’s preference, based on information of his or her past purchases.
This criterion is similar to what Amazon, the online book and consumer products retailer has been doing for some time now. If you have bought books or music CDs on rock music, Amazon will send you e-mails to inform you of new arrivals relating to rock music.
By knowing your preferences, the system will ensure that will be no spamming of irrelevant messages to the customer.
"The CSI Discovery is revolutionary to the conventional marketing/ retail model and is flexible, easy to implement and use" said Anton. It is suitable for use by most retailers, including shopping malls, banks, and Telcos, who want to market their products differently and effectively.
The idea of a smart shoppers’ software started when the Genovate team discussed target messaging with a book retailer with a chain of outlets in Singapore and Malaysia.
The CSI Discovery tool which has gone through its test-bed phase will be adopted for implementation in the first quarter of 2008. Anton says, "Singapore has the ideal climate as a test-bed to sprout and launch innovative products, and local brands act as good customer reference for market penetration into other markets".
As far as the technology goes, Anton rates his CSI software a 9 out of 10 because of the AI incorporated in the software. The smart messaging software, however, is an evolving product , and new features will be added, based on customers’ fresh requirements.
The mobile and Internet advertising industry in Singapore is estimated to be worth more than $200 million by year 2012. It is indeed timely that the CSI Discovery tool is available to tap on the ready market.
Genovate is exploring opportunities with the local telcos. Customers who are exploring the adoption of the CSI product in their marketing, need not worry about capital investments as it can be offered as a "pay per usage" model besides the licensing and hosting-based models.
With nearly three billion people expected to be using a mobile device as a part of their daily lives by year 2010, the advantage of a relevant and strategic tool to assist the marketer is crucial in mobile computing.
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