From the Top
- Executive to Executive -

Recently, RealMarket had the opportunity to talk with Karen Richardson, CEO of E.piphany. She realizes her company doesn’t have the name recognition as Siebel, SAP, PeopleSoft or Oracle but she believes she has a better solution and a better approach, especially in the area of real time analytics. Furthermore, she’s willing to back it up with a long list of customer references that have been successful with her products.

Karen Richardson,
Chief Executive Officer, E.piphany


 
RealMarket: What do you see as the number one issue or opportunity facing the CRM market today?
 
Richardson: Every transaction is a market opportunity. That is the opportunity at the fifty-thousand foot level. Just because you are interacting with a customer doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make the transaction as relevant as possible. Also it is important to treat all transactions consistently across all channels of communication. That is the best way to get loyalty.
 
RealMarket: What is E.piphany doing to address this opportunity?
 
CRM doesn’t have to be a “three R” strategy of rip, replace, and replicate. Many other CRM companies would have you believe that you have to rip everything out, replace it with their monolithic system and replicate legacy stuff in their system.

 
 
Richardson: We feel our technology can help in the journey to make every transaction a market opportunity. But we are not all about one big solution. CRM doesn’t have to be a “three R” strategy of rip, replace, and replicate. Many other CRM companies would have you believe that you have to rip everything out, replace it with their monolithic system and replicate legacy stuff in their system. That is not practical. For example, Citibank has 800+ systems of record. There is no way the “three R” strategy would ever work in a situation like that.
 
RealMarket: How do you achieve that vision without the “three R’s?”
 
Richardson: We don’t make people boil the ocean just to cook a fish. Our system is built around doing it in steps. We use a metadata approach and focus on intelligent interactions leveraging existing systems. We have many examples of delivering a single view of the customer across multiple systems at companies like KLM, Swisscom, Halifax Bank and many more. These companies can plug in new solutions or augment existing solutions that help them cross-sell and up-sell in their call centers, on their web sites, via email, chat or any other channel. Of course, we love replacing the big systems too.
 
It is important to gather knowledge about what is working and what is not working to tune your offers. Organizations can gain large advantages when they can deliver real time offers that are relevant and unique.

 
 
RealMarket: Earlier you mentioned customer loyalty as a goal. What does loyalty mean to you?
 
Richardson: Loyalty means a lot of things to a lot of people. For us, it means being relevant in interactions. We believe you’re not relevant when you are not targeting the right products and services to customers or not taking advantage of information about them. Without relevancy, there is no differentiation and customers go somewhere else. It is important to gather knowledge about what is working and what is not working to tune your offers. Organizations can gain large advantages when they can deliver real time offers that are relevant and unique. Think about this: How do you know if you are relevant if you don’t interact? Rigid systems that can’t be tuned in real time don’t give you the ability to be relevant.
 
RealMarket: OK, how do you feel your solutions are different from many of the other CRM solutions available today?
 
All of our competitors just learned how to spell analytics this year. Years ago we were already marrying campaign management and analytics together. While some of our competition might try to do analytics in batch mode offline, the real power is the ability to use the same tool for analytics and campaign management.

 
 
Richardson: The other systems that are often mentioned are Oracle, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and SAP. Now these are not bad systems, but the real problem is they are monolithic and rigid. For example, let’s talk real time analytics. All of our competitors just learned how to spell analytics this year. Years ago we were already marrying campaign management and analytics together. While some of our competition might try to do analytics in batch mode offline, the real power is the ability to use the same tool for analytics and campaign management.
 
We are doing that and our competitors are just figuring it out. We have incredible technology that accomplishes the real time analytics for an inbound customer. We can provide historical and real time information in the transaction regardless of the medium: clicks on the web, call center conversations, branch interactions, IVR or ATM. Every time we sell a call center solution, we sell our real time analytics solutions or sell it alongside of a Siebel or PeopleSoft implementation. We are pushing real time analytics in the call center.
 
RealMarket: In the world of CRM, it seems companies like Siebel, PeopleSoft, Oracle and SAP garner quite a bit of attention while many other companies, including E.piphany, don’t get as much attention. How do you feel about that?
 
Richardson: That is true but it is changing. It is changing because people don’t want to hear hype. They want to hear about concrete results. We need to get our story out via references. Year after year we win awards for best CRM implementations. We have excellent success stories with companies like KLM, AAA, Wells Fargo, the Gap and others. Most companies do not disclose detailed ROI for competitive reasons but the returns are magnificent. In some cases, we are talking about billions of dollars. This is where we can differentiate ourselves. We need to get those stories in front of system integrators that implement CRM solutions.
 
It’s harder for companies like us but at the end of the day, the market will decide. People are looking for alternatives to Siebel. We are getting more attention with the press as they notice our awards and references. We must continue to prove our systems out one by one while being good citizens with integrators like IBM. We want to show people there is a different way to do it. We picked up some nice market share gains in last year especially in the business-to-consumer market.
 
I just believe the market hasn’t figured it out yet especially at it relates to analytics.

 
 
RealMarket: Overall, what is your view of CRM technology adoption right now?
 
Richardson: I just believe the market hasn’t figured it out yet especially at it relates to analytics. The first generation CRM systems were quite simple and did nothing to make you smarter. When organizations get no value in their CRM solution, they go somewhere else. And they want more proof. So there are more pilots and expansion deals. That has really hurt companies like Siebel that sell large transactions. We also see companies like PeopleSoft not making the final cut and offering the software for free hoping to make money on the maintenance fees. We view our relationship as a tri-party arrangement – IT, procurement and business. We get rewarded for action and results rather than just doing things. We are focusing on the right verticals offering genuine successes. We feel that it is because we have differentiated technology.
 
RealMarket: In a crowded market, how does your company differentiate itself?
 
Richardson: I say three things. We can demonstrate and prove rapid deployment. Our solution is supported by an architecture that can be implemented on the order of half to a fourth of the time over proprietary software. We try harder. It is the nature of doing business with E.piphany. We really focus on the customer success. Repeatable references are critical to us and we distinguish ourselves with great integrity and a great reputation.
 
RealMarket: DNC, CAN-SPAM and other legislation have placed added importance on managing customer relations. Are you doing anything to help companies with the growing complications of new legislation and regulations?
 
The customer community has become more cognizant of the dangers of “fatigue marketing” – just blasting emails and catalogs. That is why marketers are excited about real time analytics and inbound marketing.

 
 
Richardson: The customer community has become more cognizant of the dangers of “fatigue marketing” – just blasting emails and catalogs. That is why marketers are excited about real time analytics and inbound marketing. Being at the right place and the right time has never been more important. There are many names for predictive analytics and people are attacking it many different ways. The churn or customer defection issue is a part of that problem we are interested in solving.
 
RealMarket: How are you attacking the predictive analytics question?
 
Richardson: Right now there are not many solutions for people to choose from. Today, it is mostly home grown tools that are typically rules-based engines. Yes, there are lots of point vendors but no pure play, enterprise solution. For example, Fair Issacs does real time credit scores so they are nipping at real time analytics. Alternatively, we deal with the enterprise problem. One limitation of these tools is that they are typically single channel. It is an immature market because it really isn’t a solution category yet. Analysts don’t cover it separately. However, if you go to any E.piphany customer and actually do studies, you find they know exactly what to do with this tool.
 
In the past, the call center objective was to serve the customer by processing the call - a “serve and hang up” strategy. . . . Now call center managers recognize the contact center is a sales channel for the inbound customer.

 
 
RealMarket: I see that you are making statements about marketing owning the call center. What is that about?
 
Richardson: In the past, the call center objective was to serve the customer by processing the call - a “serve and hang up” strategy. Of course, telemarketing is a different piece. Now call center managers recognize the contact center is a sales channel for the inbound customer. They have the opportunity to sell with good marketing, good knowledge and good tools. Yes, we are grabbing attention by making that statement but call centers view themselves as a way to drive revenue. Call center conversations are different now. Now there is a CMO in the room when the discussion turns to how to leveraging the call centers. I think you should be worried about your job if you are not thinking about it.
 
RealMarket: You see quite a few implementations. What best practices can you share that would help other organizations achieve higher levels of ROI?
 
Richardson: This goes back to my heritage from seven years ago. This may sound very Pollyannaish or high level, but business and IT alignment are critical. The business really has to understand what they are going to get and buy in. IT needs to be able to deliver that solution. It isn’t going to work when business is half-cocked and brings in IT late in the game. Likewise, when IT comes in and does not understand the business, results will be disappointing. Technology can make implementations go better. If I wanted to do a $5M implementation, I would bring together the heads of sales, marketing and IT to make sure they are aligned. It is about executive sponsorship and user adoption. When everyone agrees and everyone has the discipline to time box this or feature box this, then you wind up with a great implementation.
 
RealMarket: What keeps you up at night?
 
Richardson: Getting the awareness for the great things this company is doing. We are the hundred million dollar vendor where our competitors are the largest in the world. I want us to think out of the box and try things new ways. I don’t like the economy but it will weed out the weaker companies. We have differentiated technology and lots of cash. I want everyone to know how great we are. Advertising alone won’t do it. We will continue to build our credibility through references.
 
RealMarket: Looking to the future, what is the biggest change you see on the CRM and contact center horizon?
 
Richardson: I see the biggest change as no change. There is no discontinuous shift or tsunami that is about to make life different. Some people are expecting a big change and that is not going to happen. Things have become rationalized and we are back to the mid -80s to mid 90s where it is important to have really differentiated solutions. I seriously doubt venture capital will fund many new enterprise applications.
 
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