SEDONA Releases Intarsia For IBM Mid-Market Servers; Small and Mid-Sized Financial Institutions Can Now Take Advantage of Full-Function CRM System on Industry-Leading Platform
KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2001--SEDONA(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: SDNA) (www.sedonacorp.com) announced today the successful completion of beta testing and the general release of Intarsia(TM) - SEDONA's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution - on IBM(R) eServer products for mid-market customers.
Available for the past year on NT and Unix platforms, Intarsia is now available on the IBM eServer iSeries product line, the high-performance, integrated business server for mid-market, that is widely popular among SEDONA's principal customer base of community banks, credit unions, brokerage firms and insurance agencies.
The currently installed customer base of several thousand banks with AS/400 systems will be able to quickly and easily implement the new offering and realize the immediate benefits of greatly increased effectiveness in their customer relationships, marketing programs and customer service operations.
"The availability of Intarsia on the IBM iSeries platform will allow small and mid-sized financial institutions to add value to their infrastructure by adding a CRM component to their back-office systems," said Brian Lewis, executive, Americas Community Midmarket Banking, Finance and Securities Group, IBM. "IBM selected the SEDONA solution because it offers a comprehensive CRM environment that is rich in functionality but priced and designed specifically for smaller financial institutions."
Intarsia includes features such as profitability management, lead tracking, Web-based reporting and campaign management. Intarsia allows financial institutions to uncover and track sales opportunities, analyze customer and product profitability as well as develop and assess marketing campaigns.
"Financial service institutions that already experience the superior scalability, manageability and performance of the IBM iSeries can install Intarsia knowing it will be compatible with their existing IT environment," said Robert Griffin, vice president of strategic alliances, SEDONA. "As an IBM Advanced Business Partner, we will continue to work intimately with IBM and their business partners to provide the most competitive CRM offering available."
The general release of Intarsia on the IBM iSeries platform was announced following the successful beta testing by RCB Bank and Perpetual Bank.
RCB Bank, a $535 million community bank with 10 branches throughout northeastern Oklahoma, and Perpetual Bank, a $372 million bank with six offices in Anderson and Oconee Counties in South Carolina, successfully participated in the 60-day beta testing of Intarsia on the iSeries platform.
"We have seen a significant change in our bank culture since we started using the Intarsia system," said Tom Bayless, chief financial officer, RCB Bank. "The system has been able to help us expose our existing staff to the sales process, allow our sales people to gain valuable business intelligence for future sales and strengthen customer relationships. RCB is methodically moving to the next level in customer sales and servicing."
"We are very pleased with our usage of Intarsia on the IBM iSeries platform," said Lujack Orr, president, Perpetual Bank. "Using Intarsia, we can deliver precise information-on-demand to our staff with critical details about customers, products, branches and overall operations. This allows us to make confident, measurable decisions at any time. For example, we will use Intarsia in our call centers so that our staff can take a more proactive cross-selling approach."
About IBM
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