London, UK – 14 July 2010 – Alterian (LSE: ALN), the leader in customer engagement technology and solutions, was among the select companies that Forrester invited to participate in its independent report: “The Forrester Wave™: Listening Platforms, Q3 2010 ,” Forrester Research, Inc., (July 2010). From a plethora of vendors – ranging from startups to software heavyweights – Forrester included only 9 firms in its review. In this evaluation, Alterian was cited as a ‘strong performer’ based on its SM2 solution.
Forrester found that “during the past year, listening platforms have continued their evolution beyond basic brand monitoring tools into integral technologies that inform a variety of marketing and business functions like campaign measurement, market research, customer support and sales enablement.”
This trend is also discussed in Alterian’s Your Brand: At Risk or Ready for Growth? report , which looks at the change in the way consumers listen to and engage with brands. The report shows that technology is changing the way customers and businesses interact with each other and urges businesses to integrate new engagement technologies into their traditional marketing strategies. David Eldridge, CEO Alterian notes, “To communicate with a specific individual, should be the strategic and tactical goal of all brands and organisations. The question is how quickly can brands evolve their marketing strategies? Businesses who integrate their platforms with data collection, management and analysis technologies, are able to build new forms of more personal, individualised engagement.”
Forrester conducted an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the top listening platform vendors, including Alterian, based on three high level categories: Current Offering, Strategy and Market Presence. Alterian’s social media monitoring and analysis solution, SM2, was noted as having one of the more popular listening platform dashboards as well as being a competitive product through many of the evaluation criteria. Eldridge commented on the announcement, “Alterian’s strength is integrating social media data and technology into marketing strategies to ensure our customers remain globally competitive.”
“We are extremely pleased to be acknowledged by Forrester,” continued Eldridge. “This reflects our success in helping businesses to truly realise the potential of engaging with their customers. Our product strategy will continue to evolve to enable marketers to meet the changing demands of their customers.”
About Alterian
Alterian (LSE: ALN) enables organizations to create relevant, effective and engaging experiences with their customers and prospects through social, digital, and traditional marketing channels. Alterian’s Customer Engagement solutions are focused in four main areas: Social Media, Web Content Management, Email, and Campaign Management & Analytics.
Alterian technology is utilized either to address a specific marketing challenge or as part of an integrated marketing platform, with analytics and customer engagement with the individual at the heart of everything. Working alongside a rich ecosystem of partners, Alterian delivers its software as a service, or on premise. For more information about Alterian visit www.alterian.com or the Alterian blog at www.engagingtimes.com