GLOBAL
Loyalty has launched an integrated online shopping site on behalf of
MasterCard in New Zealand and Australia. Infotech
Weekly, 22 May 2000
GLOBAL
Loyalty has launched an integrated online shopping site on behalf of
MasterCard in New Zealand and Australia.
MasterCard users in New Zealand can buy a range of goods at the site, including homeware, kitchenware, and travel packages.
New Zealand's Marketing Technologies built the database engine for both the Web site and 0800 call centre, using its Brains customer relationship management software.
Brains manages all orders placed via the New Zealand or Australian Web sites. With online, real-time interfaces to warehouses distributing goods, Brains automates the order process from placement and payment to stock management and invoicing.
Global Loyalty managing director Julie Fitzpatrick says the Brains implementation proceeded smoothly, despite the project's scale and requirements, which shifted several times along the way.
Call centre operators have instant access to Web orders so they can handle queries quickly and deliver efficient service, she says.
Global Loyalty's MasterCard shopping programme is being piloted here and in Australia, with a view to rolling it out in Asia later this year.
Marketing Technologies has secured another large contract with Australia's Carlton & United Breweries, to build an integrated multimedia contact centre and sales force system using Brains.
Brains will be rolled out to more than 300 CUB staff. The contact centre pilot is live now, with sales force automation and CRM implementations to be rolled out in July.
Andrew Segar, managing director of Marketing Technologies, says the Kiwi developer has a thriving Sydney office which employs nearly half of its 25 staff.
While the company is attracting a blue chip customer base across the Tasman, its senior managers commute weekly from New Zealand and do not intend to relocate.
"We are Kiwis who want to remain Kiwis," Mr Segar says. "We all want to live in Auckland and in New Zealand, and to come home from Australia at the end of the week. We don't think the grass is greener on the other side of the ditch - the paddock is just bigger."
Set up in 1994, Marketing Technologies has done well in New Zealand with its suite of Brains applications. They include Marketing Brains (CRM, sales force automation, contact management, direct marketing); Sales Brains (remote contact management, remote sales force automation); Loyalty Brains (loyalty programme management, points programme management, call centre functionality for loyalty programmes); CC Brains (integrated multimedia call centre agent interface); and Vehicle Brains (a motor vehicle dealers' application).
Mr Segar says MasterCard Exclusives is a flagship site for Loyalty Brains.
"The database drives the Web site and the catalogue information - any given product can be ordered in two different countries, and shipped from either to customers in New Zealand or Australia."
Marketing Technologies has evolved during its short life from delivering direct marketing solutions, to the call centre arena, and now to integrated Web-based tools.
"We understand direct and catalogue marketing very, very well," Mr Segar says.
"The work we're doing with MasterCard through Global Loyalty is pure marketing, combined with a really good Web site driven by a database so the client doesn't have to worry too much about maintenance or procurement costs.
"Orders are handled seamlessly by the system as they come in."
While he expects Web ordering to become more popular, organisations will need to maintain effective call centres, because a high proportion of customers still want to place orders verbally rather than online.
"If people can choose whether to deal with an organisation via the Web or a call centre, they still usually prefer the call centre."
But he says tools such as Brains are transforming relationship marketing across industry sectors.
"Most of our Brains clients in New Zealand are upgrading to the latest version, moving into relationship marketing so the call centre takes orders, the Web site handles day-to-day transactions, and human beings take care of the customer relationships.
"That's how things are evolving overseas, and we're seeing the same trend here and in Australia."