SPSS Enabling Technologies Division and Azerity Form Strategic Alliance
Partnership of Two Industry Leaders Will Deliver Advanced Analytical
Capabilities for Azerity's ProChannel® Sell-Side E-Business Solution
Miami, FL./San Jose, CA, August 08, 2001 - SPSS Inc.'s (Nasdaq:SPSS)
Enabling Technologies Division (ETD) and Azerity, a leader in sell-side
e-business software solutions, today announced a strategic partnership that
will significantly enhance the analytical capabilities of Azerity's
ProChannel solutions suite. The partnership enables manufacturers in complex
industries like high technology the ability to quickly and dynamically
access and analyze leading indicators for their business resulting in more
accurate forecasts and inventory allocation. Azerity will integrate
advanced SPSS web-based analytics, including key performance indicators and
forecasting, into its collaborative sales solution, ProChannel.
Azerity's ProChannel offers manufacturers and their selling communities
real-time market intelligence, end-to-end control of the sales process and
fast accurate execution of transactions. The alliance of the two
award-winning companies will enable customers to analyze the sell-side
transactional data captured by ProChannel to provide a deeper understanding
of the activities across their multiple sales channels.
"Our agreement with SPSS provides the next step in the evolution of our
ProChannel solution, said Stephen Gold, president and CEO of Azerity. "For
the first time, manufacturers will have total visibility into all
transactional activity affecting company-wide sales, and the ability to
forecast future performance based on both leading and lagging indicators..
With this strategic alliance, we extend ProChannel's capabilities to senior
management, providing the analytical tools they need to make the best
decisions for their companies."
"We are very pleased to be joining forces with Azerity and to help provide
its clients with analytical tools that more quickly identify a wide variety
of business opportunities," said David Blyer, president of SPSS ETD.
The integration of SPSS analytical solutions into the ProChannel suite will
provide end users with new levels of insight into capsulated data, enabling
them to better recognize business trends and respond rapidly, while at the
same time develop more accurate forecasts. The result is a turnkey product
with built-in flexibility and extendibility that can be tailored to the
needs of clients.
"In these difficult economic times, smart companies are those that are
recognizing the enormous value of capitalizing on the huge amount of
information that exists on the sales side," said Stephen Purkiss, SPSS ETD
vice president of sales and business development for cross industries. "With
the implementation of Azerity's enhanced analytical capabilities, clients
will be able to recognize issues and opportunities earlier, investigate the
cause and effects and make timely decisions that have a significant business
impact."
About the SPSS Enabling Technologies Division
The SPSS Enabling Technologies Division (SPSS ETD), headquartered in Miami,
Fla., provides the company's analytical and predictive technologies to
leading independent software vendors and solutions providers through
strategic partnerships.
SPSS ETD integrates advanced analytical and predictive technologies, data
visualization, data warehousing, and industry-specific business intelligence
expertise to deliver customized analytical solutions that allow
organizations to solve tangible business problems. Through its pioneering
technology, DiscoverIt(tm), SPSS Enabling Technologies Division provides a
comprehensive Web-enabled framework that embeds analytical technologies and
solutions into the infrastructure of organizations in key vertical and
cross-industry markets, including telecommunications, healthcare, finance,
retail, customer relationship management, and BI.
For more information about SPSS Enabling Technologies Division and
partnering opportunities, please visit www.spss.com/embed/.
About Azerity
Azerity, an evolution of Intelic Software, is a sell-side e-business
software provider that enables manufacturers to create a highly efficient
sales environment, dramatically increasing sales throughput by synchronizing
complex business processes across and between the entire selling chain.
Founded in 1998, the company developed its ProChannel solution for
manufacturers and their selling communities, offering real-time market
intelligence, end-to-end control of the sales process, and fast, accurate
execution of transactions.
Since then, ProChannel has become the industry standard at top-tier
manufacturers with proven performance, a definable return on investment, and
unsurpassed user satisfaction. In 2001, Intelic Software became Azerity, a
name change designed to reflect the magnitude of growth that has occurred in
sell-side automation, Internet adoption, and Azerity's role as a market
leader for collaborative sales solutions. For additional information about
Azerity, visit www.azerity.com.