Alterian has partnered with David Shepard Associates to provide an on-premise version of the Alterian Marketing Services Platform in North America.
“Organizations come in and say they would love to leverage Alterian’s technology but that they have to have it in-house,” said Michael Fisher, SVP of commercial operations for Alterian. “Right now, Alterian doesn’t have a way to satisfy that, but we know that it’s a demand from the market.
“This demand has a lot to do with privacy or security requirements in an organization,” Fisher explained. “It also is tied to skill set availability; some organizations have skills they would like to leverage internally where others look to outsource.”
The Alterian Marketing Services Platform includes integrated analysis, campaign planning, multichannel execution, reporting and marketing operations capabilities. It is already available as a hosted database and software-as-a-service and is offered on-premise in the UK, Europe and Asia.
“We see that a large portion of marketing databases are not outsourced,” Fisher continued. “They’re insourced, and we believe that, based on the total cost of ownership and the usability of Alterian’s technology, we have a massive opportunity to penetrate those organizations that have chosen to insource their databases.”
David Shepard Associates, a database and direct marketing consulting firm, has been tapped to help with sale, design implementation and support for the Alterian software.
“There are a lot of companies that want their database in-house and are thinking of changing or updating their database and wondering how to use it,” said David Shepard, president of David Shepard Associates. “It’s a win-win. If a company goes to Alterian and wants to use the software but doesn’t want to be serviced by a service bureau, then they can receive the support they need working with David Shepard.
“David Shepard Associates will be there for continuing ongoing support and, in addition, can provide consulting services,” he continued. “What companies want to do with their databases and models, how do they do it, we can help with.”
To support the on-premise offering, Alterian has beefed up investments in sales and marketing resources and is looking into additional partnerships. Current Alterian software partners include Acxiom, Allant Group, Merkle and Ogilvy One. These partners serve clients such as Princess Cruises, General Motors and Dell.
