IBM Boosts Analytics With Coremetrics Acquisition

IBM has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Coremetrics, a web analytics software provider. But Big Blue did not disclose financial terms of the deal.

The acquisition of Coremetrics will mark the third acquisition IBM has made in its application middleware group since May of this year. Since then IBM has acquired Cast Iron Systems, Sterling Commerce and now Coremetrics.

Customer Insights

Coremetrics, a privately held company based in San Mateo, California, will expand IBM’s business analytics capabilities by enabling organisations to use a cloud-based delivery model to gain real-time insight into consumer interactions internally and through social media networks to develop faster, more targeted marketing campaigns.

In a press conference about the news, Craig Hayman, general manager of IBM WebSphere, said Coremetrics will land in IBM’s WebSphere business unit under his leadership. He said the Coremetrics technology will expand IBM’s already significant business analytics capability and bring in new web analytics capabilities that will appeal to a different set of customers as well as existing IBM customers.

Hayman said organisations are increasingly looking for ways to optimise their marketing processes and gain deeper insights into client demands in order to drive brand loyalty by executing more personalised customer interactions. Companies are faced with an increasingly complex set of digital outlets to interact with customers, ranging from websites and mobile applications to email and social media sites. Businesses must continuously focus on enhancing the customer brand experience and respond quickly to marketplace changes to differentiate themselves.

Getting Closer

Moreover, Hayman said results from IBM’s 2010 CEO Study showed that 88 percent of CEOs will focus on getting closer to their customers in next five years, 82 percent of CEOs want to better understand customer needs and 85 percent of CEOs require more visibility into their businesses.

These are things that Coremetrics’ technology can help customers with, Hayman said. “Companies are trying to get higher levels of brand loyalty,” and Coremetrics enables them to tap cloud-based analytics and social media networks with direct links to marketing campaigns, he added.

Relevant business information is being generated every second on the web, Hayman said. Today, 70 percent of a consumer’s first interaction with a product or service takes place online. Through Coremetrics, IBM is gaining the ability to help businesses rapidly gain intelligence into social networks and online media sources through a cloud-based delivery model and incorporate this insight into their business processes to create smarter, more effective marketing campaigns.

Coremetrics’ offerings enable more effective marketing campaigns that can provide real-time intelligence on what consumers are saying about products and services being offered to them, and allow clients to make fact-based, accurate decisions on marketing expenditures. As a result, marketing teams can gain deeper insight about their consumers and present personalised recommendations, promotions and other sales incentives across a variety of channels where the consumers interact with their brand. These channels span traditional outlets such as storefronts and catalogues and newer outlets including all forms of e-commerce and social media.