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DMSI NEWS

May 2007:   WiseGuysTM Interface with AccuZipTM Completed.
DMSI staff has recently completed a new interface for WiseGuys - our award winning marketing software. This enhancement allows WiseGuys to link with AccuZip, a popular desktop tool for NCOA and customer address hygiene. With the coming postal increases, this feature will be invaluable for mailers. More info at AccuZip

Here is what Jim Moore, a catalog veteran, has to say about the WiseGuys - AccuZip solution:

"We are now able to update our WiseGuys customer data with just a few click strokes. And, with both applications on our desktop, we can run our data cleanup every week. The simplicity of this solution is hard to beat"

March 2007:   DMSI addresses USPS National Sales Reps
In Feb. and March, 2007, the US Postal Service Leadership Development Center sponsored a 2 week seminar on Database Marketing, with Bruce Gregoire, President of DMSI, as one of it's featured speakers. Mr. Gregoire led 3 seminars on the Fundamentals of Database Marketing, as part of an intensive 2 week program.

If your organization needs any type of instructive seminar on the topic of Database Marketing, be sure to contact DMSI.

December 12, 2006:  WiseGuys Software Wins 2006 NCDM Excellence Award Falls Church, VA

NCDM Database Excellance Awards

Desktop Marketing Solutions today announced that its WiseGuys software, in conjunction with clients RAPIDS Wholesale and Porters Camera, has been named recipient of the prestigious bronze award in the Analytics and Modeling Applications category of the 2006 National Center for Database Marketing (NCDM) Database Excellence Awards.

Presented jointly by DIRECT Magazine and The Direct Marketing Association, the Database Excellence Awards honor organizations that have demonstrated ingenuity and creativity in leveraging marketing databases, achievement of dramatic, measurable results by applying statistical techniques, leveraging systems capabilities or re-organizing to become more customer-focused.

"We are flattered not only by the fact that we join the ranks of illustrious award recipients like AOL and Dell, but because of the recognition the award represents about the value WiseGuys brings to RAPIDS Wholesale and Porters Camera and other clients," said Bruce Gregoire, president of Desktop Marketing Solutions, Inc.

"This is a powerful testament to our mission of providing companies with the ability to increase sales and reduce mailing expenses via a low priced, low tech solution."

The award, presented December 12 at a ceremony during the annual conference in Orlando, FL is the result of a rigorous judging process that requires careful study of entries representing a variety of industries from the United States and other countries.

May 19, 2006: DMSI has announced that it's flagship application - WiseGuys Marketing Software - now integrates with MS Dynamics NAV. The addition of MS Dynamics - part of MS CRM Business Solutions - to the WiseGuys solution provides full CRM Database Marketing functionality for direct marketers.

WiseGuys is able to link to all customer and order history from MS Dynamics, and perform the following:

  1. (RFM Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value) analysis.
  2. Customer Lifetime Value analysis.
  3. Market Basket analysis.
  4. Customer deduping and householding.

Call (703) 941-8109 for details, or download our WiseGuys FAQ

March 2006:  WiseGuys(TM) featured in Catalog Success magazine
DMSI's flagship application - WiseGuys(TM) Marketing Software - is featured again in an industry publication. The latest coverage in the March 2006 issue of Catalog Success magazine follows previous flattering pieces, and has confirmed WiseGuys(TM) as the smart choice in database marketing software.

In a Special Report "Eight Lessons You Can Learn From a Matchback", Catalog Success discusses the fine points of Response Analysis. It closes with the following:
"Matchback tools also can be added to your existing order management software. These programs offer immediate matchback capabilities by integrating mailing data and order information into a single database. When orders are received, they're automatically matched to a mailed record. Two examples of these software solutions are the Media Matchback Module, which runs in Response Direct Commerce Software by CoLinear Systems, and the Matchback Response Analysis feature of WiseGuys by Desktop Marketing Solutions. The latter links to several standard order management software programs." >> Click here to see the entire Catalog Success article.

Click here to see more reviews of WiseGuysTM
(in Catalog Age, 2004 and Inside Direct Mail, 2005)

Feb. 27, 2006: Rings & Things Chooses WiseGuys
Rings & Things, Spokane WA, one of the largest wholesale suppliers of decorative beads and jewelry supplies in the U.S., has chosen WiseGuys for their database marketing software application. WiseGuys will integrate with MAS90 to provide RFM, Lifetime Value, and Product Pair CrossSell processing.

Sept 22, 2005:   DMSI to teach "Fundamentals of Database Marketing
DMAW The Direct Marketing Assoc. of Washington (DMAW) has once again enlisted Bruce Gregoire, DMSI to lead an all-day seminar on "Fundamentals of Database Marketing", on Wednesday, November 9, 2006.

This course, to be held at the UVA Tech Center in Falls Church, VA, is designed for both entry level and experienced direct marketing professionals who want added exposure to the art and science of Database Marketing. A great deal of the material for this course is abstracted from Arthur Hughes' popular text "Strategic Database Marketing", used by Mr. Gregoire for his graduate marketing class at Johns Hopkins University.

New database topics! The course (formerly known as RFM Boot Camp) has been expanded to include new material for marketers.
  1. More database terminology: learn some of the industry jargon, so you can actually communicate with your tech staff (what a concept!).
  2. Introduction to CRM: hear from Martha Rogers about Customer Relationship Management.
  3. New marketing technologies: learn how to employ Google adwords, Constant Contact, and more.

And as before, you will use Microsoft Access to manipulate a sample marketing database in a hands-on environment.

Who would benefit from this course? Marketing analysts, circulation planners, direct marketers, fundraising professionals, and marketing management who want a basic understanding of how to use a marketing database.

From a recent student: "Mr. Gregoire is obviously very passionate about his field and I truly enjoyed his class and got a lot out of it."

Click on the Calendar of Events tab at DMAW

Sept 28, 2005: Access Rules: The best solution for low-tech marketing database processing.
Choosing a market database software application is all about four important criteria:

  1. User friendliness
  2. Scalability
  3. Compatibility
  4. Processing power

Since the mid-1990's, the popular choices in the desktop world have been Filemaker Pro, Alpha Five, Visual FoxPro and Microsoft Access. In our minds, the clear cut winner is Microsoft Access. Here is how we see these products stack up side-by-side (you may strongly disagree, and if so please let us know with your own rankings).

  1. User friendliness: Alpha Five and Filemaker Pro are very easy to use - and lead in this category. They have loyal users, who - like Mac users - will defend their solution to death. But ultimately they are compromised in the compatibility and processing categories. Training availability is also an issue. Since MS Access outsells other products by at least 100 to 1, it has more commercial training programs available (one of the best we've found is at CompUSA).
  2. Scalability: (handling large files): Visual FoxPro and MS Access both have database size limits of 2 gigabytes. But MS Access uses linkages to spread out data tables among multiple databases to overcome this obstacle. A colleague of mine relates his experience with a billion dollar fund raising organization, that runs their entire enterprise on a linked MS database structure. DMSI's own WiseGuys program is also Access-based, and can handle 3 million customer and transaction records. The last point about scalability is perhaps the most important - Access can link to SQL Server tables. For larger enterprise solutions, this is a minimum requirement.
  3. Compatibility: Nearly all desktop software is designed for Windows compatibility since MS Windows is the default operating system for most businesses. As part of the Microsoft Office suite, Access has superior compatibility with Excel, SQL Server, and web based applications.
  4. Processing power: Marketing database activities require sophisticated queries. Our experience with MS Access is that the many built-in functions and tools will handle the most arcane queries you can conjure up. But it is a bit of a memory hog. Count on spending extra funds on your desktop (specifically memory) if you have a large database and want speedy processing.

July 21, 2005:   The WiseGuys(TM) CrossSell module - beats Amazon side-by-side!
Our popular WiseGuys Marketing Software has now released a CrossSell module - to boost your cross-selling capability both over the phone and over the web. The current version performs specialized analysis using product purchase information, sometimes known as Market Basket Analysis (MBA). You can also think of MBA as "Marketing By Amazon" - since they made it famous. Just like Amazon, it displays a recommended product pair, based on the current product purchase. For example, if a customer buys a baseball bat, what is the most likely other product he/she will purchase (a glove or a ball?). What it means to WiseGuys users is improved cross-selling, higher average order size (and a better bottom line)!

Beats Amazon: WiseGuys CrossSell goes further than Amazon in its analysis. A user can define the "purchasing window" within which a cross-sell opportunity can be counted (e.g. within 7 days). For instance, any bat-ball combination purchased within 7 days of each other is considered a successful cross-sell event. Additionally, the product pair results can filter out database "noise level" (such as gift purchases) using any of the following parameters:

  1. Individual SKU
  2. Product class - e.g. filter consumable items
  3. Division
  4. Sales Territory
  5. Source code

From Strategic to Tactical: The current version of CrossSell displays product pair combinations with high correlation. If you are a MOM user, DMSI staff can take this display and populate your cross sell tables in MOM. This will allow a pop-up screen to display the cross sell product during order entry.

In a future version, CrossSell will automatically create a list of all customers that have ordered the proverbial bat but not yet ordered the ball - and fire off an email asking for the sale.

A gentle reminder for your web shoppers: The CrossSell strategy follows the fundamental marketing concept that it is far easier to sell an additional item to an existing customer, than it is to sell to a new prospect. So if your web shopping cart can display cross sell products (just like Amazon), this approach is invaluable as a gentle reminder to web shoppers when they already have their credit card out. A gentle reminder could take the form "Did you know that 90% of our bat purchasers also buy our softball? Click here to add this item"

High capacity: WiseGuys CrossSell has been thoroughly tested with 50,000 SKUs - that is 2.5 billion product pair combinations!

Call DMSI offices at (703) 941-8109 and ask for a free demo. Better yet, if you are a user of Mail Order Manager, take advantage of our special offer: Request a demo before Sept 1st, and we will compute your top three product pairs, without charge!

July 25, 2005: Introducing a MOM Dashboard: Real-time Executive level reports are just a click away.
DMSI recently discovered Gold! A visit to one of our clients revealed a "Dashboard style" display unlike we have ever seen - and the best news is that it is available to anyone who uses Mail Order Manager (MOM). If you're not satisfied with the quality of sales reporting that MOM provides, you'll be glad to know about emfluence, an interactive marketing company in Kansas City, MO. By combining Microsoft's Internet Information Server and one of several web programming languages, such as ASP, .NET or ColdFusion with MOM, emfluence can create password protected Intranet reports that will show up-to-the-minute sales figures. Exactly what your busy executive needs - a one click display without having to drill-down through the MOM menu structure.

Need to compare April 2004 to April 2005 sales? Want it broken down by retail v. wholesale v. web? Maybe you'd like a sales rep commission report? With a thorough understanding of MOM's table structure, emfluence has been able to provide this level of custom reporting for MOM users. Some general reports will get you hooked. From there you just need to know what you want and how to ask for it. To view some sample reports and get more information, visit the emfluence web site.

Contact David Cacioppo, emfluence Managing Partner at (816) 472-4455, and mention DMSI.

May 19th, 2005:   WiseGuys(TM) Matchback Response Reporting - See What Works!
DMSI announces MatchBack Response Reporting - a new feature of WiseGuys Marketing Software. MatchBack addresses the single biggest unmet need among direct marketers: what promotions worked - and what didn't work.

Flyfishers know. Gamblers like to think they know. Know what? Know what works! Without in-depth response reporting, however, direct marketers are more like gamblers.

WiseGuys Marketing Software now provides answers to these questions. MatchBack Response Reporting matches incoming customer orders against a mail history file (previously stored). Depending on a set of parameters described below, WiseGuys can establish how well each mailing segment performed.

The Process:
Response Analysis usually follows this sequence of events in a mail campaign:

  1. A mail file is selected in WiseGuys, and a mail date is recorded for each mailing address.
  2. Subsequently, order entry staff key incoming orders following the mail campaign (using your own order entry software). Most users will record both the order date and (optionally) the source code on the mailing piece.
  3. By linking to your customer database, WiseGuys can match orders with mailing addresses, to show successful responses.

MatchBack parameters, defined by each user, are as follows:

  1. Response Window - you establish the maximum number of days that can elapse between your mail date and a successful subsequent response.
  2. Source Code matching - you can (optionally) require that the source code of an incoming order match the key code of the outgoing mail piece.

The Results:
MatchBack displays the percentage of customers in each mailing segment that have been linked to a subsequent order. This is done for both prospects and customers. In a future release, MatchBack will calculate the ROI for each mailing campaign.

April 15, 2005:   DMSI Benchmarking Helps AARP with Strategic Focus
DMSI has completed a Benchmarking Study for AARP, Washington DC. The objective of the Benchmarking study was to show where AARP needed to strategically focus their resources to continue their marketing database excellence.

With over 35 million members, AARP is the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over in the United States. Recently, DMSI was asked to perform a Benchmarking study to establish the current Database Marketing maturity level of ASI - an AARP division devoted to partnerships with for-profit organizations.

Solution:
DMSI looked at five operational areas: marketing requirements, organizational requirements, informational requirements, technology requirements, and financial requirements. Each area was evaluated using a benchmarking "gap analysis" according to the following baselines:

Level 1: Data Capture level - This is best described as a "looking in the rear view mirror" approach to marketing. A sometimes simplified, sometimes primitive level of database marketing maturity.

Level 2: Reactive level - This is best described as "steering through traffic." This category describes a level of maturity that allows some flexibility in real time to overcome challenges, but lacks a strategic pro-active capability.

Level 3: Pro-active level - This can be described as "knowing what is ahead, and adjusting." It is very strategic in nature, with vision and foresight built into the database marketing methodologies.

Results: With the results of the DMSI Benchmarking study, AARP was able to identify where it wanted to be, from a database marketing maturity standpoint, and isolate the gaps with their current focus. In this way, AARP moved ahead to resolve these strategic differences.

Jan. 1, 2005:   WiseGuys featured again in Natl. Trade Journal
WiseGuys Marketing Software was featured in the Jan. 2005 issue of Inside Direct Mail. The article, titled "Data at your Fingertips", displayed a side-by-side comparison with similar marketing applications. One key fact was overlooked: WiseGuys is the least expensive!

An abstract of the article is as follows: "Desktop Marketing offers this marketing analysis software that links to a marketer's order entry system. Written in Microsoft Access, it automatically households files, segments customers into quintiles and assigns RFM scores to customer records. Users can apply lifetime value analysis to identify profitable customer segments and conduct response analysis to measure the effectiveness of direct marketing campaigns."
For further information, visit Inside Direct Mail

January 3, 2005:   WiseGuys extends Interface Capabilites
DMSI is proud to announce that our WiseGuys Marketing Software can now interface with 6 popular catalog software packages. The two newest - Natural Order and CommercialWare Mozart - were completed in Dec., 2004.

WiseGuys extends Interface capabilities with 6 software packages

DMSI is proud to announce that our WiseGuys Marketing Software can now interface with 6 popular software packages:

  1. MAS90 Accounting software (new in Sept, 2004)
    Recommended by more CPAs than any other business management application in its class, MAS 90 offers a broad selection of feature-rich solutions, including core accounting and CRM. As described above, the WiseGuys installation is part of a new Database Marketing initiative for clients of CSI in Springfield, VA.


  2. Activant POS software (new in Nov, 2004)
    Activant's business management software provides powerful tools at point-of-sale checkout for independent retailers. The WiseGuys interface has been implemented at McDonald Garden Center in Hampton VA.


  3. Natural Order (new in Dec, 2004)
    Natural Order is a leading catalog management system from Natural Solutions of Indianapolis, IN. Natural Order facilitates multi-channel marketing for both B-B and B-C environments. The WiseGuys interface was developed as part of a new installation at Sales Service/America, a catalog division of the United Way of America in Alexandria, VA.


  4. Mail Order Manager (MOM)
    MOM is the market leader in catalog management software, with more than 5,000 installations. MOM's claim to fame is it's ease of use. WiseGuys has interfaced with MOM since Dec., 2003 to provide complete Database Marketing capabilities for multiple clients.


    5. Ecometry joins Mail Order Manager as the 2nd major catalog software application that is compatible with WiseGuys. Look for more progress reports in upcoming issues of our e-newsletter.

    April 5, 2004: WiseGuys featured in Catalog Age!
    The April 2004 issue of Catalog Age, the leading trade journal for catalogers, has published an in-depth review of the WiseGuys Marketing Software. The review focuses on the two principal features of WiseGuys: RFM analysis (Recency, Frequency, and Monetary Value); and Lifetime Value analysis (LTV). Ernie Schell, a catalog software veteran, describes the current state-of-the-art in the catalog industry: "When it comes to database marketing, the typical catalog company, regardless of size, talks the talk but fails to walk the walk". He further cites WiseGuys as a "no-brainer for nearly every company still stuck in 'Excel hell'."
    See the full text of the article here.