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Investor Place Media Business Objects Case Study
1. SAP Customer Success Story
Media
INVESTORPLACE MEDIA
Escaping thE Quicksand with
sap® BusinessObjects™ sOlutiOns
Quick facts
“We are driven by our boundless Company SAP® Solutions and Services
• name: investorplace Media llc • sap® BusinessObjects™ Enterprise premium
curiosity – the main trait everyone • location: Rockville, Maryland software
needs to be successful here – and • industry: Media • sap BusinessObjects data integrator
• products and services: financial software
SAP BusinessObjects solutions make publications • sap BusinessObjects web intelligence®
• Revenue: us$70 million software
it possible to answer all the questions • Employees: 125 • crystal Reports® family of offerings
we’re asking. Our BI solution has • web site: www.investorplace.com
Implementation Highlights
become the heart of our operations.” Challenges and Opportunities • detailed analysis of underlying data
• Effectively leverage massive volumes of structure
Heath Warner, Vice president of Business data from multiple sources for marketing • completion of project in a matter of week
intelligence, investorplace Media llc campaigns
• provide targeted communications and Why SAP
services for customers • Robust reporting tools
• deliver actionable information to all • Expertise in Bi solutions
marketing groups Benefits
Objectives • More efficient reporting environment for
• implement integrated business intelligence all users
(Bi) and information management solutions • highly targeted marketing campaigns
to consolidate data management processes • Reduction in list selection process from
• Empower decision makers with flexible data 8 hours to 30 minutes
mining and reporting tools • sharper focus on actionable information
• support the partner ecosystem with data with ability to drill into the details
integration functionality • higher staff productivity and greater ability
to answer complex marketing questions
2. people work hard their whole lives to build up a nest egg of retirement but we couldn’t use it effectively until
we applied the power of the sap
savings – the key to years of stress-free travel and recreation – and
BusinessObjects tools. they helped
they want to be sure their money is invested wisely. Younger investors us sift through the data and provide
actionable information to our marketing
too are keen to leverage savvy investment advice, particularly in
group in a timely manner.”
today’s busy online trading environment. helping individuals optimize
Choosing the Power Tools from SAP
their portfolios is what investorplace Media llc is all about, and
sap® BusinessObjects™ business intelligence (Bi) and information warner and his team did their home-
work. first, they carefully researched the
management (iM) solutions play a pivotal role in the process.
leading Bi products on the market, finally
choosing sap BusinessObjects Enter-
prise premium, sap BusinessObjects
a publisher of financial advisory services Media simply tracked whether an end web intelligence®, crystal Reports®,
for self-directed investors with head- customer did or did not purchase and sap BusinessObjects data inte-
quarters in Rockville, Maryland, specific products. But with the advent grator software – an “easy choice”
investorplace Media has brought of e-mail and the internet, much more according to warner.
market-beating investment advice to sophisticated response metrics became
the individual investor for more than available for market segmentation the team worked on the underlying
30 years. with net annual sales of purposes: did the customer open the data structure, taking several months
approximately us$70 million, the com- e-mail message? did she click on one to make sure everything was right. im-
pany helps investors build wealth in a or more of the embedded links? which plementing the sap BusinessObjects
serious, consistent way through con- specific pages were viewed? did the solutions took only a matter of weeks.
sumer newsletters, e-mail services, customer make a purchase? “it was virtually an overnight success,”
web sites, and other media platforms.
products include such well-respected
publications as louis navellier’s “It was virtually an overnight success. Once we validated the data and flipped
Quantum growth, Richard Band’s
the switch, we cut our normal eight-hour list selection process down to half
profitable investing, and Robert hsu’s
china strategy. an hour. That created a lot of buzz in the company.”
Heath Warner, Vice president of Business intelligence, investorplace Media llc
Taming the Flood of Data
Before investorplace Media implemented “we were caught in the quicksand of recalls warner. “Once we validated the
its sap BusinessObjects solutions, the all this new data,” says heath warner, data and flipped the switch, we cut our
company’s Bi staff was overwhelmed vice president of business intelligence normal eight-hour list selection process
with huge volumes of marketing data at investorplace Media. “we knew the down to half an hour. that created a lot
from disparate sources. previously, as data was important to our business and of buzz in the company.”
a direct-mail house, investorplace to the marketing decisions we make,
3. “We’ve got the wattage that we need from our SAP BusinessObjects
solutions. Once we tackle the prospecting requirements, several other
key areas of our marketing program are just lying in wait to go through
a similar build-out of reporting and analytical tools.”
Heath Warner, Vice president of Business intelligence, investorplace Media llc
sap BusinessObjects web intelligence ment opportunities, we don’t send them infrastructure allows us to create mul-
makes it possible to create easy-to-use e-mails about growth-oriented strate- tiple views of the data with minimal
universes, empowering high-level mar- gies. this has made communicating effort, so we can really slice and dice
keting executives to mine data directly with our customers a more fruitful things in order to analyze how leads
and answer many of their own questions. experience.” are performing after they get onto our
power users take advantage of crystal database,” he says. “we’ve got the
Reports to develop sophisticated report- the partner ecosystem surrounding wattage that we need from our sap
ing applications. the software provides investorplace Media – including the BusinessObjects solutions. Once we
a summarized, or snapshot, view for company’s fulfillment and e-mail mar- tackle the prospecting requirements,
executives and gives them the ability
to drill down to the most granular
details. sap BusinessObjects data “It’s been very helpful in creating a more efficient reporting environment for all
integrator was invaluable in establishing
the data mart at the outset of the
of our users – not just marketing but also accounting, customer service, and IT.
project. and sap BusinessObjects The efficiency lies in having everything in one place.”
Enterprise premium acts as an overall
Heath Warner, Vice president of Business intelligence, investorplace Media llc
report server at investorplace Media.
“it’s been very helpful in creating a
more efficient reporting environment keting vendors – also reaps significant several other key areas of our market-
for all of our users – not just marketing benefits. “it’s taken a lot of pressure off ing program are just lying in wait to go
but also accounting, customer service, them,” says warner. “in the past, we through a similar build-out of reporting
and it,” says warner. “the efficiency looked to them for reporting solutions. and analytical tools.”
lies in having everything in one place.” we’d get data on marketing campaign
success from our e-commerce vendor, By providing solutions that make it
Improving Communication, and we would try to plug it into data we possible to answer the most complex
Collaboration, and Customer were receiving from our web-hosting marketing questions, sap has helped
Service vendor – sort of like assembling a giant investorplace Media unleash its creativ-
jigsaw puzzle in Excel. now they just ity. all marketing groups can now cus-
in addition to improving operational send us the data, and we use the sap tomize their own reporting and use the
efficiency at investorplace Media, the BusinessObjects solutions to put the data to answer their own questions,
sap Business Objects solutions make jigsaw puzzle together.” and executives have become more
a big difference to the company’s sub- proactive about mining the data.
scriber base. “with a better under- Focusing on the Future
standing of our customers, we are able
to target our marketing campaigns warner already has a number of new
much more successfully,” says warner. Bi projects lined up, and he plans to
“for example, if we know someone has start with prospecting. “the power of
expressed interest in fixed-income invest- our sap BusinessObjects solutions
