-- IN THIS ISSUE --

CRM ANALYTICS MAKE THE CUSTOMER CONNECTIONS

UCLA INTERNET REPORT FINDS DECLINES IN E-COMMERCE

ASCENTIAL BUYS TORRENT SYSTEMS

CRM ANALYTICS:
REACHING THE HEART OF THE CRM PROCESS

In part 4 of a 4 part series, DSstar will address the issues surrounding CRM analytics, it's role in the CRM process and how it optimizes business.

CRM ANALYTICS MAKE THE CUSTOMER CONNECTIONS
Truck drivers may not be the first demographic you'd think of when deciding whom to target as a fastidious tea drinker, but the ability to make such seemingly unlikely connections is driving interest in analytic customer relationship management systems, or CRM analytics, one of the newest and fastest-growing segments of CRM today.

DEPARTMENTAL AGENDAS DIVERGE
Getting customer relationship management projects to work across the enterprise is proving even more onerous than early skeptics predicted. Part of the problem is cultural. Salespeople responsible for populating databases with customer information are balking because it's not clear what's in it for them.

CRM ANALYTICS PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR
Adding an analytics component to your customer relationship management (CRM) strategy can give your organization a valuable snapshot of customer behavior. But managing the data to produce timely and targeted results can be a challenge for IT managers.

TAKING THE PULSE OF YOUR CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS
Keep tabs on your customers and products. Gain knowledge and insight to deliver service consistently and according to your customer's value. Turn data into strategy. Understanding your customers has never been as important -- or as easy.

Features

Leading Edge R&D

SUN/SYBASE SET REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE FOR 25+ TERABYTE DW'S
Sun Microsystems Inc and Sybase Inc introduced a jointly designed, integrated, tested and tuned, 25-plus terabyte raw data input iForce Enterprise Data Warehouse Reference Architecture. The offering provides a blueprint for deploying next-generation, high-performance data warehousing.

2001 UCLA INTERNET REPORT FINDS DECLINES IN E-COMMERCE
UCLA's year-to-year report on the impact of the Internet leaves little doubt that going online is now a mainstream activity in American life that continues to spread among people across all age groups, education levels and incomes.

WEB DESIGNERS SHOULD STOP SEARCHING
Web-site designers should understand their users' way of thinking, introduce them to content they didn't know they were looking for, and -- most of all -- keep them from using the search function, according to a report released by Web research firm User Interface Engineering.

Business & Money Trail

ASCENTIAL BUYS TORRENT SYSTEMS
In a move to make its data integration and transformation software more scalable, Ascential Software Corp has acquired Torrent Systems Inc, a developer of parallel-processing infrastructure software for building data warehouses, for $46 million in cash.

WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE THE WAR?
Americans, whether they realize it or not, leave a trail of data with every life step. As soon as a person is married or divorced, basic details about the event go on file at the local courthouse for anybody to browse.

DATA PROTECTION IS TOP-OF-MIND FOR IT INVESTMENTS
DataCore Software Corporation, a leading provider of storage virtualization and networking software, offers technology-driven recommendations designed to help companies implement cost-effective, scalable and manageable disaster recovery and data protection solutions leveraging virtualization technology and Internet-based mirroring.

IBM DATABASE GETS MORE ANALYTICAL
IBM will soon offer new database software with improved analysis tools that allow companies to examine business information and seek out patterns and trends. IBM in early December will ship new DB2 database management software that analysts say will allow the company to play catch-up against rivals Microsoft and Oracle in the $8.8 billion-a-year database market.

WEB SERVICES ENABLE PROCESSING OF CUSTOMER RETURNS
Reverse logistics, the art of processing returns and the bane of the online e-commerce industry, will get a much-needed boost this shopping season as logistics company Newgistics and the Spiegel Group use Web services to collect and integrate return information into backend systems.

TECHNOLOGY USED TO TRACK TERRORISTS' FUNDS
Technology has become an increasingly vital tool in the United States' fight to uproot terrorist financial networks as part of an assault involving the Treasury Department, the FBI and the Federal Reserve.

CRM GETS LIFT FROM FINANCIAL SECTOR
Investment in customer relationship management technologies by retail financial institutions will drive healthy growth of these tools through 2005, according to research from TowerGroup.

XML DATABASE: BIG FISH LOSE OUT TO THE MINNOWS
XML is increasingly being positioned as the next territory for the Microsoft/Oracle/IBM database war. However, the companies aren't telling you this, because none of them are very good at the technology yet.

Top Of The News

Short Takes

On The Market
CorVu Introduces CorRisk Enterprise Risk Management
Financial Watch
Bristol-Myers Squibb Signs with High Tower Software
Capespan Migrates from Informix to Oracle Database
Los Alamos Selects Vendor for Integrated Business Management

Quote Of The Week

"Many companies take the position that 'it can't happen to me' and then discover that 'it' -- a total loss of data -- can happen and costs far more than the preventive measures would have." -- Anne Skamarock, senior analyst, Enterprise Management Associates