Hitting the mark U S West taps NCR/SDT for marketing drive >BY SHIRA McCARTHY, Associate Editor-News

Six months after announcing plans to incorporate data analysis software into its data warehousing solution, NCR has named U S West Communications one of the first users of its Customer Retention Solution program.

U S West is developing programs to market second lines to its customers in Phoenix.

"We were interested in building specific marketing applications, but we didn't have some of the underlying basic infrastructure requirements-namely customer databases organized around customers rather than around products or geographies," said Gloria Farler, executive director of market intelligence and decision support at U S West Communications. "In addition, market analysts didn't have access to multiple databases such as inventory information.

In response, the telco decided to take a big risk in Phoenix by scrapping its second-line marketing plan for the holiday season-a broadcast mail campaign-in favor of a direct mail campaign driven by the Customer Retention Solution program. U S West mailed its first marketing pieces on Nov. 4 and will continue the campaign for three months.

Carriers are realizing the importance of identifying their customers' current and future value in the new competitive landscape, said Paul O'Brien, vice president of marketing for NCR's Communications Industry Business group.

"The trick is to treat each customer as an individual entity," O'Brien said. "Carriers need to turn from the model in which they had all the customers to a model in which they have loyal customers.

U S West will use the customer retention solution to predict where demand exists for a second line-not only to identify targets for the direct mail campaign but to incorporate inventory information into the program to ensure adequate capacity in those areas. The program uses NCR servers, Sabre Decision Technologies' Datawise analysis tools and information models and custom applications that both companies developed.

Replacing U S West's usual marketing campaign with NCR's pilot program is risky, Farler said, but if it succeeds, she expects the telco to ultimately save money. Direct mail is more cost-effective than broadcast mail, and tying in inventory information will let U S West target areas where it already has the capacity to offer the service, instead of having to provide service without adequate facilities.

Farler has already submitted a proposal to roll out the program to other regions and for other services. "The jury's still out, but I think we've proved the concept of creating this kind of structure, having a corporate data warehouse defined in broader terms with a statistical toolkit and good tracking systems," she said.