JDA Software Gets "Purl"sonal

March 1, 2008


JDA Software Gets "Purl"sonal
By Elizabeth Glagowski of the Peppers & Rogers Group

Driving sales in unexpected places

JDA Software's strategy for building wallet share is to reach out to its existing B2B customers when their software is scheduled to be upgraded. In the past the interaction would also serve as an opportunity to introduce new products or features in a mass market way. But the company wanted a better approach to converting sales.

"The challenge we face is that we have more than 80 software applications," says Kathryn Buchanan, alliances manager at JDA, a maker of supply and demand chain solutions. "You can't provide a one-size-fits-all approach."

So JDA decided to take a relevant, interactive approach to its customer communications. The company better targeted and personalized its direct mail and email campaigns by including invitations for customers to visit a personal website, or PURL. This level of relevance helped to create a dialogue that had been absent from previous customer interactions.

JDA Software teamed up with hardware providers Hewlett-Packard and Intel to create the content for the emails and the Web site. Agency The Mahoney Company facilitated the initiative, developing the personalized Web site functionality and sending out the email and direct mail pieces. Starting in July, 171 customers received two direct mail pieces and two email messages over an eight-week period, inviting them to visit their personalized URL.

The Web site gives customers relevant information, such as white papers, videos, and customer testimonials. It also gives customers a chance to share insight that can help JDA better serve them. A nine-question survey asks about customers' growth plans, software needs, and hardware preferences. One key question, "When do you plan to upgrade your JDA software?" proves especially helpful for Buchanan and her team. "This typically isn't information a customer would reveal [during a regular sales call]," Buchanan says. She attributes the new openness to the relevant and personalized nature of the interaction. "They understand that for us to help them [solve their business challenges], they will need to provide specific information. One of the most important aspects of the program is that we wanted to create mindshare."

For JDA, using personalized URLs is beneficial because it can track user activity in real time, including who's visiting the site, what pages they click, how they answer the survey, and what documents they download. "In previous campaigns I've had to wait as long as a month to get information," Buchanan says. "This is as simple as a cc: in an email to get information to business development on the day it's collected."

With this deeper customer insight, JDA now offers clients free workshops and consulting resources to help them determine the best product enhancements to meet their individual needs. It's collaboration between sales, marketing, and consulting that wasn't possible before. "It's a tremendous benefit, because traditionally we operated in silos," Buchanan says.

Buchanan notes that results have exceeded expectations. The response rate is at almost 10 percent, and 47 percent of respondents completed the Web site survey. "[The initiative] filled our pipeline," she says. "There are closed opportunities from this."

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