Press Releases

DIREXXIS ANNOUNCES QR CODE TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

Quick Response (QR) Code Technology Integrated into Direxxis' dmEDGE Marketing Platform Enables Users To Generate Interactive Marketing Communications

Needham, MA, JULY 26, 2010 – Direxxis, Inc. (www.direxxismarketing.com) a leading provider of distributed marketing software solutions, today announced that Quick Response (QR) code technology has been integrated into Direxxis' dmEDGE marketing platform to enhance sales and marketing initiatives.

A QR code is a two dimensional bar code that can be scanned by smartphones. Once scanned, the consumer is presented with additional information such as product details, web sites, video, contact information and more.

"By including a QR code, your marketing piece becomes a dynamic, interactive document," says Rick Kollmeyer, Chief Technology Officer at Direxxis. "Our integrated QR code generation and tracking technology enables our users to include customized QR codes in their marketing communications. By making the codes trackable, our users can view real-time performance results."

Direxxis' dmEDGE distributed marketing solution is an on-demand, self-service marketing and advertising application suite that is designed for non-marketers and covers services and functionality historically supplied by multiple disconnected vendors. Even non-technical end users can initiate, deliver and track compliant, localized marketing and advertising programs with dmEDGE.

Companies using the dmEDGE solution realize increased sales productivity, reduced support costs, faster speed to market, better marketing materials management, increased user adoption and continuous learning due to real time reporting and analytics.

Chief Marketing Officer of Direxxis, William Fayerweather, says that Direxxis clients demand innovative marketing solutions that allow them to capitalize on the latest technology and trends. "With the use of smartphones continuing to rise, our clients are incorporating QR codes onto multi-channel communications including business cards, direct mail pieces, emails, flyers, banners, etc. By using QR code technology to drive more personalized and relevant messaging, our clients are realizing improved campaign performance and a better return on marketing investment. Additionally, the real time measurability of QR codes is an advantage for marketers charged with justifying marketing spend."

About Direxxis

Direxxis is a leading provider of marketing software solutions. dmEDGE, our web-based marketing platform, delivers smarter distributed marketing operations. dmEDGE is specifically designed to allow organizations to support the complexities associated with decentralized sales and marketing. dmEDGE utilizes a single integrated platform to enable corporate and local marketers, field sales and marketing partners to efficiently create, store, localize, manage and measure marketing communications across multiple channels. dmEDGE is deployed to over 450,000 users globally. More information is available at www.direxxismarketing.com.

DIREXXIS dmEDGE DISTRIBUTED MARKETING SOLUTION NAMED AS FINALIST FOR THE 2010 MITX TECHNOLOGY AWARDS

Seventh Annual MITX Technology Awards Recognize Outstanding Technology Advancements

Needham, MA, May 3, 2010 – Direxxis, Inc (www.direxxismarketing.com) a leading provider of distributed marketing solutions; today announced that it has been named as a finalist for the 7th Annual MITX Technology Awards. The MITX Technology Awards recognize emergent and innovative technologies developed in the New England area, as well as the individuals and organizations responsible for driving these advancements. The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) is the country's premier Internet business and marketing association.

Direxxis' dmEDGE distributed marketing solution is an on-demand, self-service marketing and advertising application suite that provides comprehensive technology, services, and administration tools in a closed loop environment to support field marketing. It is designed for non-marketers and covers services and functionality historically supplied by multiple disconnected vendors. Even non-technical end users can initiate, deliver and track compliant, localized marketing and advertising programs with dmEDGE.

"New England is a global center of technology and innovation, so being recognized as a finalist in this year's MITX Technology Awards is a huge honor," said Rick Kollmeyer, Chief Technology Officer for Direxxis. "This validates the vision of our executive team, as well as the huge effort put forth by our bright and dedicated development team. We are energized in our ongoing goal to innovate and expand our market-defining product."

"Being named a finalist in the MITX Technology Awards is an important achievement," said Kiki Mills, president of MITX. "This recognition translates into increased exposure with media, industry analysts and investors, and provides them a higher profile in their industry. We congratulate all of the finalists on their achievement and wish them luck in the competition."

Finalists represent the spectrum of innovation in New England's technology sector, demonstrated by eleven categories at this year's awards, which include: Analytics and Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Devices, E-Commerce/Alternative Retail, Marketing/Customer Relationship Technologies, Mobile Application, Mobile Infrastructure, Online Advertising, Rich Media, Social Media, and Technology Enablers.

"Our success comes from close strategic partnerships with our customers, our world-class technology, and our team of knowledgeable distributed marketing experts." said Direxxis Chief Marketing Officer William Fayerweather. "We are honored to be named a 2010 MITX Technology Awards finalist."

Direxxis will be recognized with the other finalists in the category of Marketing/Customer Relationship Technologies at an awards ceremony attended by the region's top technology and business professionals. Winners will be announced at the ceremony at the Boston Marriott Copley Place on Wednesday, June 2, 2010.

In addition to being selected as a finalist for their category, finalists are eligible for a 'Best of' award and for a 'Promise' award, which recognizes start-up companies whose emerging technology solutions show promise to make a significant business impact.

The MITX Technology Awards program is sponsored through the generous support of: The Atom Group, DLA Piper, LEWIS PR and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Creative partners include: Corey Machanic, Height&Hands, massAV, and PJ Moore: Brand Design & Strategy.

About MITX

The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) is the region's premier professional organization for the Internet business and marketing industry. Reaching more than 7,500 professionals in New England, MITX is the community for thought leadership, building business relationships and professional training and development. Members of the MITX community take advantage of events, sponsorships, speaking opportunities and networking to make business connections and exchange ideas. With more than 60 events annually, MITX provides its members with the opportunity to promote their companies to targeted audiences and provides a valuable forum for networking with other likeminded peers to source potential business leads, partnerships, ideas, and funding. MITX is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. Visit us at www.mitx.org.

About Direxxis

Direxxis is a marketing technology and services company focused on enabling organizations to build great relationships with their current and prospective customers. dmEDGE is Direxxis' on demand marketing and advertising portal which is specifically designed to support organizations with decentralized sales and marketing needs. dmEDGE delivers the technology, services, and administration tools necessary to allow corporate marketing to enable decentralized users to create, store, localize, execute and measure marketing and advertising communications in a self service, closed loop environment. More information is available at www.direxxismarketing.com.

Direxxis Positioned in Magic Quadrant for Marketing Resource Management

Direxxis evaluation based on completeness of vision and ability to execute

Needham, MA, March 1, 2010 – Direxxis, Inc. (www.direxxismarketing.com) a leading provider of distributed marketing solutions, today announced that it has been positioned by the industry analyst firm Gartner, Inc. in its "Magic Quadrant for Marketing Resource Management" report. (*)

Direxxis provides MRM capabilities via its dmEDGE on-demand, integrated distributed marketing solution designed to support organizations with a decentralized field force. Gartner evaluated Direxxis, and other companies, for the Magic Quadrant based on their completeness of vision and their ability to execute.

"Achieving placement in Gartner's Magic Quadrant this year is an honor and we believe also provides validation that Direxxis continues to secure its position as an up and coming leader in the MRM market," said Steve Scruton, Direxxis president and CEO. "Our dmEDGE solution, on which we were evaluated, enables our rapidly expanding client base to achieve end-to-end marketing functionality via a reliable, supportable, and configurable system. Marketers are demanding powerful MRM functionality be integrated within their distributed marketing solutions that are easy to implement, integrate and administer and Direxxis is delivering that to them."

Gartner defines MRM as a set of processes and capabilities designed to enhance a company's ability to orchestrate and optimize internal and external marketing resources. MRM applications enable companies to plan and budget for marketing activities and programs; create and develop marketing programs and content; collect and manage content and knowledge, fulfill and distribute marketing assets, content and collateral; measure, analyze and optimize marketing performance.

Direxxis' dmEDGE distributed marketing solution is an on-demand, self service marketing and advertising portal that provides comprehensive technology, services, and administration tools in a closed loop environment to support field marketing. It is designed for non-marketers and covers services and functionality historically supplied by multiple disconnected vendors. Even non-technical end users can initiate, deliver and track compliant, localized marketing and advertising programs with dmEDGE.

Chief Marketing Officer of Direxxis, William Fayerweather, said that dmEDGE clients demand solutions that focus on the unique business challenges associated with supporting distributed marketing. "dmEDGE provides our clients with the technology that allows corporate marketing to support field sales to create, localize, execute and measure marketing programs and communications. For example, dmEDGE provides our clients with brand management controls across multiple channels, helps them centralize content, data and business rules, and allows them to accurately implement and track field marketing programs."

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2010 by Gartner, Inc., and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Direxxis

Direxxis Privacy Policy Underscores Our Commitment To Privacy

Policy reflects and implements our corporate privacy principles.

Needham, MA, February 15, 2010 – To underscore our commitment to privacy, Direxxis has adopted a privacy policy for our customers, our business, and consumers whose information we may store. This policy reflects and implements our corporate privacy principles.

If you have questions or concerns regarding our policy, you should contact us at: Direxxis Inc. 250 First Ave. Needham, MA 02494 Telephone: 781.444.7900 E-mail: privacy@direxxismarketing.com.

Information Collection: Direxxis acquires, stores, processes, and manages consumer data, on our clients' behalf, for the purposes of creating and executing direct marketing programs. We do not collect consumer information directly from individuals, on websites or otherwise, unless it is for the purpose of opting out of direct marketing programs.

Use of Data: Our data resources are used exclusively to drive direct marketing programs for our clients. This may be in the form of direct mail, email, telemarketing services or other well known outbound marketing channels. We do not re-sell any data provided to us on behalf our clients or data provided to us directly by consumers. We may re-sell consumer data to 3rd parties, but only data that already exists in the public domain. Consumer Choice At Direxxis we firmly believe that consumers should have choice as it relates to receiving marketing offers from our client programs. If you would like to opt-out of these programs, please contact us at the address listed above, or send an e-mail to: privacy@direxxismarketing.com.

Access and Correction: As an information company, we know the importance of accurate data. Therefore, we strive to maintain the accuracy of the information within our data resources. Furthermore, we believe that the consumer is invaluable in ensuring that data is complete and accurate. If we are presented with a request for access or correction of data, we will make every attempt to ensure the source data is corrected, by informing our clients and data provider(s). Such requests should be directed to the address listed above, or send an e-mail to: privacy@direxxismarketing.com.

Information Security: We take steps to protect against the loss, misuse, or unauthorized alteration of personally- identifiable information stored at Direxxis. We recognize the importance of security for all consumer information we may store on our client's behalf. We exercise care in providing secure storage and transmission of consumer information on our servers.

Once we receive consumer information, we take steps to protect its security on our systems. In the event we request or transmit sensitive information, we use industry standard encryption technology.

We limit access to consumer information to those employees who need access in order to carry out their job responsibilities.

Policy Changes: We may revise this privacy policy from time to time.

About Direxxis

Case Study: Constellation Energy Improves its Prospects

From: Manage Smarter
Date: July 8, 2009
By: Steve Scruton

Forrester analyst Laura Ramos may have said it best. In a report entitled "Why B2B Sales Teams Need Marketing Portals," she made the following illuminating observation: "By bridging the business-technology divide, marketing boosts reps' productivity and enriches their standing as valued sales partners." Ramos' words are exemplified by Baltimore-based Constellation Energy, a Fortune 125 integrated energy company. Last year, Constellation implemented a technology solution that has already paid for itself in results and proved its value to the company's sales reps. Constellation Energy generates, transmits, and delivers energy; helps customers manage their energy costs and usage; and buys and manages fuels for other power generators. It is the nation's largest competitive supplier of electricity to large commercial and industrial customers, and the nation's largest wholesale power seller. Especially in these challenging economic times, it's critical Constellation retain profitable customers and maximize the value of these relationships, as well as attract new customers. To do so, the company has always engaged in a number of B2B marketing programs.

Getting the Edge on Prospecting

Over the past year-and-a-half, in an effort to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its marketing outreach, Constellation has pursued an aggressive initiative to automate its marketing prospecting programs. The first step in this initiative was taken in January 2008: A distributed marketing automation platform called dmEDGE from Direxxis was chosen, and the prospect database component of dmEDGE was implemented.

"It is the first application we found that links data and campaign functionality with the ability to customize messaging at the local level," says Anson Asoka, Constellation's vice president of customer insights and market analytics. "We realized that this capability was exactly what we needed to maximize the results of our customer prospecting efforts."

Constellation's custom self-service solution based on the dmEDGE platform helps its sales reps connect with high-potential prospects in cross-selling, customer prospecting, and acquisition efforts.

Push and Pull

"Our marketing automation strategy has already paid off since we rolled out the new solution," says Asoka. "We have seen impressive results in a short time. Now, sales can access prospect lists themselves to pull leads, rather than waiting for internal data to be delivered to them from the back office.

"This saves our reps a tremendous amount of time, has increased their productivity, and more importantly, has resulted in an increase in conversions," he adds. "We also have the capability to electronically push campaign data out to the sales force, such as prospect or customer lists and marketing materials."

Reps also have the ability to electronically keep track of notes on specific customers and enter appointments into their Outlook calendars via the solution.

Because Constellation Energy's reps can now access more information electronically, it has reduced the amount of paper it uses. The company has been able to create a more paperless environment and is a "greener" organization.

There are other benefits associated with the dmEDGE-based solution, according to Asoka. "The actual time it took from the start of the build to a working model was a mere four to six weeks," he recalls. And the custom solution supports hundreds of geographically dispersed Constellation Energy users in the U.S.—mostly those in a sales capacity.

Next Up

Next in line for Constellation Energy is another function to be added to its marketing automation infrastructure built on the flexible dmEDGE platform. This enhancement will enable users to access all of Constellation's digital assets as needed, using the same self-service model. Asoka says this component is currently being rolled out.

Capitalizing on local marketing efforts with the dmEDGE-based solution, Constellation Energy continues to improve its prospect targeting, cross-selling, upselling, and acquisition results, contributing to the company's top-line growth. Even in those tough times, finding good prospects has never been better.

Sidebar

When searching for an end-to-end marketing automation solution, here is a checklist of capabilities to look for:

• Secure web-based access.

• Password protection and user-identified access.

• Local asset customization.

• Single- and multi-channel marketing ability.

• Turnkey print and production.

• Turnkey e-mail campaign execution.

• Marketing campaign performance and tracking.

• Customer or prospect data selection through configurable filters.

• Multiple billing options.

• Corporate compliance and administration.

• User and usage reporting.

DIREXXIS, dmEDGE 4.0 DISTRIBUTED MARKETING PORTAL NAMED AS FINALIST FOR THE 2009 MITX TECHNOLOGY AWARDS

Sixth Annual MITX Technology Awards Recognize Outstanding Technology Advancements in the New England Region

Needham, MA, May 18, 2009 – Direxxis, Inc (www.direxxismarketing.com) a leading provider of distributed marketing solutions; today announced that it has been named as a finalist for the 6th Annual MITX Technology Awards. The MITX Technology Awards recognize emergent and innovative technologies developed in the New England area, as well as the individuals and organizations responsible for driving these advancements. The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) is the country’s premier Internet business and marketing association.

Direxxis’ dmEDGE 4.0 distributed marketing portal is an on-demand, self service marketing and advertising portal that delivers comprehensive technology, services, and administration tools to support field marketing. With dmEDGE 4.0, decentralized users can easily create, store, localize, execute and measure marketing and advertising communications in a self-service, closed loop environment.

"New England is a global center of technology and innovation, so being recognized as a finalist in this year's MITX Technology Awards is a huge honor," said Rick Kollmeyer, Chief Technology Officer for Direxxis. "This validates the vision of our executive team, as well as the huge effort put forth by our bright and dedicated development team. We are energized in our ongoing goal to innovate and expand our market-defining product."

“Being named a Finalist in the MITX Technology Awards is an important achievement,” said Kiki Mills, executive director of MITX. “This recognition translates into increased exposure with media, industry analysts & investors, and provides them a higher profile in their industry. We congratulate all of the finalists on their achievement and wish them well in the competition.”

Entrants were able to submit their work under any of ten different categories, including: Analytics and Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Devices, Enterprise Technologies, Gaming, Marketing and Customer Relationship Technologies, Mobile, Online Advertising, Rich Media and Social Media.

Direxxis will be recognized with the other finalists in the category of Marketing and Customer Relationship Technologies at an awards ceremony attended by the region’s top technology and business professionals. Winners will be announced at the ceremony at the Westin Copley Hotel on Tuesday, June 16, 2009.

“dmEDGE is designed for ease of use. Even non-technical end users can initiate, deliver and track compliant, localized marketing and advertising programs,” said Direxxis Chief Marketing Officer William Fayerweather. “Our success comes from close strategic partnerships with our customers, our world-class technology, and our team of knowledgeable distributed marketing experts. We are honored to be named a MITX Technology Awards finalist.”

In addition to being selected as a finalist for their category, finalists are eligible for several ‘Best of’ awards, and for the new ‘Promise’ awards.

About MITX

Established in 1996, MITX—the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) is the region’s premier professional organization for the Internet business & marketing industry. Reaching more than 7,500 professionals in New England, MITX is the community for thought leadership, building business relationships and professional training and development. Members of the MITX community take advantage of events, sponsorships, speaking opportunities and networking to make business connections and exchange ideas. With over 60 events annually, MITX provides its members with the opportunity to promote their companies to targeted audiences and provides a valuable forum for networking to source potential business leads, partnerships, ideas, funding and other likeminded peers in the industry. MITX is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. Visit us at www.mitx.org.

About Direxxis

Direxxis is a marketing services and technology company focused on enabling organizations to build great relationships with their current and prospective customers. dmEDGE is Direxxis’ on demand marketing and advertising portal which is specifically designed to support organizations with decentralized Sales and Marketing needs. dmEDGE delivers the technology, services, and administration tools necessary to allow corporate marketing to enable decentralized users to create, store, localize, execute and measure marketing and advertising communications in a self service, closed loop environment. More information is available at www.direxxismarketing.com.

Direxxis Launches dmEDGE 4.0 Marketing Platform Designed For Decentralized Sales and Marketing

On demand, self service marketing and advertising portal delivers comprehensive technology, services, and administration tools

Needham, MA, April 8, 2009 – Direxxis, Inc. (www.direxxismarketing.com), a leading provider of distributed marketing solutions, announces the latest release of dmEDGE, its award-winning distributed marketing platform that is delivered as a hosted web service. With dmEDGE 4.0, decentralized users can easily create, store, localize, execute and measure marketing and advertising communications in a self-service, closed loop environment.

dmEDGE is designed for ease of use. Even non-technical end users can initiate, deliver and track compliant, localized marketing and advertising programs through the dmEDGE intuitive, permission-based marketing portal.

“The dmEDGE technology platform is very sophisticated and unique in the marketplace because it provides an easy-to-use interface for non-marketers covering services and functionality historically supplied by multiple disconnected vendors,” said Anson Asoka, Constellation Energy’s Vice President of Customer Insights and Market Analytics. “It is the first application we found that links data, content and campaign execution functionality with the ability to customize messaging at the local level. We realized that this capability was exactly what we needed to maximize the results of our customer prospecting efforts.”

While enabling highly customized direct marketing and advertising programs, dmEDGE also ensures that corporate marketing best practices, legal compliance and brand standards are maintained. The step-by-step dmEDGE program workflows and turnkey execution take the guesswork out of these traditionally complex and time consuming processes.

A recent report from Forrester, Forecast: Global Enterprise Marketing Platforms: 2007 To 2013, written by senior analyst Suresh Vittal, supports the fact that marketers are demanding powerful tools that are also easy to use. In the report, Vittal stated, "Marketers want a more comprehensive application to make marketing more efficient, simplify measurement of results, and, most importantly, improve the customer experience."

In order to deliver a positive return on investment, dmEDGE is organized into functional solution modules, allowing corporations to keep costs low by implementing only those modules and functions necessary to support current business objectives. If additional needs and opportunities arise, dmEDGE is designed to allow solution modules and programs to be easily added.

dmEDGE Benefits

Rapid Implementation Plan: Highly configurable dmEDGE architecture offers rapid setup and deployment. A fully configured dmEDGE system can be implemented in less than two weeks.

High Participation and Low Support: Self service guided program workflows and turnkey execution processes require minimal training and support and drive high user participation and adoption rates.

Configurable Solution Toolkit: Designed to easily configure dmEDGE to support client-specific business needs and requirements, including data driven business rules and permissions, personalized user views and programs, and integration with existing systems (SFA, CRM, etc.), and programs

On-Demand Delivery Model: dmEDGE is deployed as a hosted service and accessed over the Internet using the SaaS (Software as a Service) delivery model. As such, customers only pay for the dmEDGE services they request, and it requires no client IT hardware/software maintenance or support.

William Fayerweather, Direxxis CMO stated, “The newest release of dmEDGE incorporates the best practices from Direxxis’ customer base with our leading edge marketing and advertising technology platform. We continue to define success by the measurable, positive return on investment dmEDGE delivers for our clients.”

“Our marketing automation strategy has already paid off since we rolled out the new dmEDGE solution,” said Asoka. “We have seen impressive results in a short time. Now, sales can access prospect lists themselves to pull leads, rather than waiting for internal data to be delivered to them from the back office. This saves our reps a tremendous amount of time, has increased their productivity, and more importantly, has resulted in an increase in conversions. We also have the capability to electronically push campaign data out to the sales force, such as prospect or customer lists and marketing materials.”

About Direxxis

Money Lying Around? Targeted sales calls connect better with clients who invest more

From: CRM Magazine
Date: August 2008
By: Jessica Tsai

When all you hear are woes about the economy, it’s hard to imagine anyone’s in the position to make big investments. Barclays Global Investors (BGI), a subsidiary of United Kingdom–based Barclays Bank, has a unique retail division that sells to financial advisors, as opposed to institutional investors, in its Intermediary Investor Business (IIB) unit. The IIB team sells exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and iPath exchange-traded notes to advisors through its iShares business. But with more than 200,000 financial advisors in the market—on top of the struggling economy—the IIB sales team had to make each call count.

For seven years, iShares account executives had been manually collecting data on prospects and existing customers: online activity at the BGI Web site, calls into the contact centers, and responses to direct marketing and email marketing campaigns. As the customer base grew, the sales team ballooned in size as well—and soon, data requests became overwhelming, says George Shehata, director of CRM and analytics for the IIB group. It was the responsibility of his team of analysts to track, update, and deliver data on new and existing clients.

But BGI faces a challenge unique to the retail side of financial services: “Since investors are going out to the exchange to transact with an exchange-traded fund, we don’t [get] any of the transactional data,” Shehata explains. “So essentially what we’re relying on is a lot of our profile data and behavioral data.”

In November 2007, after exploring four other solutions, BGI built its Prospector tool on the dmEDGE platform from Massachusetts-based direct marketing firm Direxxis. The implementation took three months, which Shehata says he found “remarkable”—other solutions, he says, would have taken three times as long.

With more-targeted call lists, the average salesperson soon doubled conversion rates. Instead of calling 100 people for 10 customer wins, a rep could get the same results from calling just 50. More important, Prospector helped facilitate a deeper customer interaction. “Our distribution model is heavily linked into maintaining a very strong relationship with our client,” Shehata says. Only then can BGI educate advisors to sell more iShares in larger volumes to their client base.

As the sales force became more dependent on Prospector, they no longer needed to tie up Shehata’s CRM analyst team to help them manually generate lists. Instead, “analyst resources were freed up to work on other sales and marketing analytic projects, in addition to taking on more CRM development work,” Shehata says.

According to employee reports, call preparation time was reduced by approximately 25 percent. Not only were client profiles more comprehensive, the Prospector presented the information in digestible reports. The dramatic efficiency was validated by the fact that, as Shehata observes, “everyone is looking at the contact profile report before they ever place the call.”

From just a few clicks on a Web page, salespeople can derive a wealth of information, such as a client’s number and type of investments, Web-site browsing behavior, and type of account and account tenure—insight that allows BGI to find relevant information that suits the specific interest of each client. “The most non-tech-savvy users [can] do what our pretty sophisticated IT team was doing on the back end,” Shehata says, adding that the implementation itself put very little drain on the technology department. Moreover, the success of Prospector in the United States has motivated BGI to expand the solution to the European iShares team as well.

Perhaps what’s most exciting is the fact that, despite current market conditions, sales personnel report that they are connecting better with high-profile clients who actually invest more. “Our salespeople say, ‘We found this client we didn’t know about before, who’s now going to invest $6 million,’” Shehata recounts. “And they found them through the Prospector.” —Jessica Tsai

THE PAYOFF…WITH DIREXXIS’S DMEDGE, BGI WAS ABLE TO:

double its conversion rates;
eliminate the need for analysts to create call lists for the sales team;
Reduce precall preparation time by 25 percent;
earn higher-value accounts; and
cut implementation time by a third.

All Budget Blinds’ Franchisee Marketing Materials Now Housed Under One Roof

From: BUSINESS WIRE
Date: 12.4.2007

NEEDHAM, Mass.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Direxxis, a company leading the way in delivering end-to-end direct marketing solutions, announces that Budget Blinds, the leading window covering franchise in the United States, has selected dmEDGE to power its franchisee marketing programs. dmEDGE is Direxxis’ comprehensive turn-key direct marketing solution that fuses all of the necessary marketing campaign functions into a user-friendly web portal that serves to effectively connect organizations with their customers and business partners.

“dmEDGE allows our franchisees to focus on their primary business—selling window coverings, area rugs and other decor items from leading manufacturers—while making it easy for us to support them by providing good-looking, brand-focused ads quickly and in a format that most printers prefer,” said Suzi Carragher, Director of Corporate Communications for Budget Blinds. “Direxxis’ dmEDGE solution also enables Budget Blinds to keep all of our professionally-designed materials in one central repository, so franchisees have ‘one-stop marketing’ access to all the approved marketing materials.”

Before implementing dmEDGE, Budget Blinds had a self-administered site and was challenged with controlling the quality of the creative product being used for local franchisee marketing. Previously, franchisees needed to establish relationships with local graphic designers who would occasionally take too many liberties with the approved marketing pieces. This often resulted in distorted photos, “Frankensteined” ads, omission of legal disclaimers, typos, missing phone numbers and the like.

While searching for options that would address this very troublesome, and potentially brand-damaging, situation, it found dmEDGE to be the solution that best met all its needs. “We were very pleased that Direxxis was willing to work with our team to create a custom solution that really worked for us,” Carragher said. “And, dmEDGE can still adapt to our changing needs.”

Carragher found that Direxxis was also good at helping Budget Blinds get up and running, as well as updating the system. “Direxxis has been great to work with! They were extraordinarily organized and sensitive to deadlines when we were implementing the system. When we need to update items on dmEDGE, the Direxxis team will have it done when they say they will, which allows us to keep commitments to our franchisees.”

What dmEDGE features does Carragher find especially beneficial? “The printable PDF format that we use for our creative prevents errors and enables franchisees to control the customizable portion of the message. Printers prefer the format because they can only print the file. Printable PDFs eliminate finger pointing. Also, with dmEDGE franchisees don’t need to be design experts to provide their local marketing vendors with good looking ads and compelling offers. In addition, we can guide the franchisees to choose sound offers and include necessary legal copy. dmEDGE is a great tool for organizations like ours looking to control brand identity from local to national levels.”

The dmEDGE portal system creates an advantage for the Budget Blinds organization and its franchisees because now they can use the same data buying and assembly techniques utilized by top centralized direct marketers to execute campaigns. Some of the far-reaching benefits the dmEDGE solution provides the Budget Blinds organization include:

Less time needed to execute campaigns and communications. Franchise owners don’t need to spend all of their time coordinating different vendors and researching data sources so that their time can be spent running their businesses.
Increased learning. With a feedback loop, the marketing knowledge will be continuous in nature and shared between all franchisees and the corporate office. Corporate campaigns can be effectively tracked and franchise campaigns can match response and customer information back to mailings for analysis.

“Ultimately all of this will unify the Budget Blinds branding and marketing initiatives throughout the system,” concluded Carragher.

About Direxxis
Direxxis creates and delivers turn-key, web-based end-to-end direct marketing solutions that enable our clients to build great relationships with their customers. Our marketing solutions help clients target prospects who share the same characteristics as their best customers, greatly improving their acquisition efforts by enabling them to reach the right prospects at the right time. Direxxis’ dmEDGE solution, designed especially for organizations with a decentralized sales structure, has a flexible architecture that allows marketers to streamline the complex, detail-oriented direct marketing process and focus on the principles that drive direct marketing success. More information is available at www.direxxismarketing.com.

All trademarks and registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Press Releases

DIREXXIS ANNOUNCES QR CODE TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

DIREXXIS dmEDGE DISTRIBUTED MARKETING SOLUTION NAMED AS FINALIST FOR THE 2010 MITX TECHNOLOGY AWARDS

Direxxis Positioned in Magic Quadrant for Marketing Resource Management

Direxxis Privacy Policy Underscores Our Commitment To Privacy

Case Study: Constellation Energy Improves its Prospects

DIREXXIS, dmEDGE 4.0 DISTRIBUTED MARKETING PORTAL NAMED AS FINALIST FOR THE 2009 MITX TECHNOLOGY AWARDS

Direxxis Launches dmEDGE 4.0 Marketing Platform Designed For Decentralized Sales and Marketing

Money Lying Around? Targeted sales calls connect better with clients who invest more

From: CRM Magazine Date: August 2008 By: Jessica Tsai

All Budget Blinds’ Franchisee Marketing Materials Now Housed Under One Roof

From: BUSINESS WIRE Date: 12.4.2007

From: CRM Magazine
Date: August 2008
By: Jessica Tsai

From: BUSINESS WIRE
Date: 12.4.2007