FulCircle Gains a Competitive Edge With Customer-Facing BI Environment

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Feb 28, 2012) - Information Builders, an independent leader in business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that FulCircle, a premier supplier of fulfillment and contact center services, has used its WebFOCUS BI software to create SmartSuite™, a customer-facing analytic environment that allows FulCircle's customers to establish and measure key performance indicators (KPIs) related to FulCircle's contact center, fulfillment, and eCommerce activities. WebFOCUS reports and dashboards give these customers greater visibility and insight into their marketing, sales, fulfillment, and support activities, with alerts to indicate significant milestones and encourage further investigation.

The new BI offering comes at a crucial turning point in the highly saturated contact center market. As basic contact center offerings become commoditized, the majority of the industry competes at a very basic level, measured by cost-per-call and cost-per-minute. Because contact center services are at the heart of FulCircle's multi-faceted offering, FulCircle's management knew that they could leapfrog the competition by developing customer-facing dashboards and reports that permit customers to monitor their operations at a minute level. WebFOCUS' guided ad hoc reporting was a perfect fit for FulCircle's customer base.

"Our customers need to analyze and fine-tune their strategies quickly," said Jim Comstock, vice president of Strategy and IT and Chief Operating Officer at FulCircle. "With other BI tools you have to pre-define reports and load data constructs for each type of analysis. WebFOCUS permits a quick, interactive approach that lets our customers analyze data on the fly. In addition, we found a good cultural fit with Information Builders. They wanted to be our partner. The other BI vendors didn't offer this same level of personal service."

Led by the FulCircle Business Innovation group, Information Builders' Professional Services helped FulCircle to define the new BI architecture and accompanying security infrastructure. Today, whether FulCircle's customers want to obtain a deeper understanding of contact center KPIs or monitor exact inventory levels in their warehouses, SmartSuite gives them an easy-to-use dashboard to track important metrics and connect with data points outside of the FulCircle platform to measure the effectiveness of their marketing channels. The new BI environment reveals statistics about calls, orders, shipping, inventory, and billing, permitting customers do their own reporting and analysis of their contact centers, fulfillment centers, and e-commerce solutions.

"FulCircle has found a sweet spot among small and mid-size companies that value its complete, end-to-end offering," said Gerald Cohen, president and CEO of Information Builders. "Its new BI environment helps these companies to monitor their interactions with clients and to maximize the lifetime value of each sale. SmartSuite helps FulCircle to optimize its services, and it helps its customers to run their companies more efficiently."

About FulCircle
FulCircle is a premier supplier of fulfillment and contact center services. For more than 25 years, the company has developed comprehensive solutions to help clients excel in their industries by navigating a complex marketing landscape. Its commitment to excellence and uncompromising dedication to client success lay the foundation for an integrated suite of marketing execution services: Contact Center, Fulfillment, and eCommerce solutions. FulCircle assimilates the entire marketing function onto one platform, thereby eliminating the hassle of coordinating multiple vendors.

About Information Builders
Information Builders provides software and services that bring smarter decision-making and streamlined processes to leading organizations in business, government, and education worldwide. The company's software is installed in tens of thousands of locations, servicing millions of users. Its WebFOCUS business intelligence (BI) platform delivers massively scalable information applications, analytics, and customer-facing portals to the new generation of information users to deliver game-changing business results. Its iWay Software integration platform allows enterprises to leverage all of their information resources to streamline internal and business-to-business processes while escalating the overall accessibility and integrity of information regardless of environmental complexity. Headquartered in New York City with 60 offices worldwide, the company employs 1,350 people and has established significant industry partnerships. Visit Information Builders at informationbuilders.com. For ongoing news, go to informationbuilders.com/new or follow Information Builders at @infobldrs.