CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2004--Ace Hardware, the nation's largest cooperative of independently owned and operated hardware retailers, announced at the Retail Systems show today the purchase of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite from Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR). Implementation of the new solution, which includes campaign and promotion management, actionable analytics and communications applications, will begin this month and be completed by the third quarter of 2004.
Ace Hardware has been operating a Teradata(R) Warehouse for nearly four years and uses the system to drive its customer loyalty program, the Helpful Hardware Club. At the same time, the co-op determined that it needed to automate and streamline its marketing processes while increasing the number of marketing campaigns it can plan and execute, raising the level of sophistication of the campaigns, improving analytics and leveraging customer information across the enterprise.
"After a detailed review of the leading CRM vendors, it was clear to us that only Teradata has the knowledge of our business and the comprehensive functionality required to provide the solutions our users are demanding," said Mike Altendorf, vice president of information technology at Ace.
"Teradata CRM will provide us with a detailed understanding of our customer purchase behaviors and preferences, and we will then personalize offers to those customers needs. Plus, the Teradata solution's scalability will enable Ace to support the Helpful Hardware Club's robust growth requirements and demands in the future."
The new applications will help the company develop more personalized offers to club members and build stronger relationships between Ace retailers and their customers, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and retention.
"The home improvement industry has become increasingly competitive, both from retailers within our trade channel and with companies from other retail channels offering more and more of our core product lines. To continue to thrive in this environment, we need superior technology that helps our marketers make better decisions faster and enables the use of customer information across all our business processes, and that's exactly what Teradata and Teradata CRM helps us do," said Mike Bodzewski, vice president of marketing, advertising and retail development. "Our senior management team backed the initiative wholeheartedly because they understand the importance of having the right tools to deliver the best information to our retailers to give them a competitive advantage."
"Ace is committed to helping its retailers develop stronger relationships with their customers. By selecting Teradata CRM, Ace is making it easier for marketers at the hardware company to optimize their customer interactions by developing demand creation campaigns that are not only more timely but relevant to customer buying behaviors," said Rob Berman, Teradata vice president of retail.
About Ace Hardware
Founded in 1924, Ace Hardware Corp., headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., is the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the industry. Ace's annual retail sales from its more than 4,800 hardware, home center and lumber and building materials retailers top $13 billion. Ace currently operates 15 distribution centers in the United States and has stores located in all 50 states and 70 countries.
About Teradata Division
Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR), is the global technology leader in enterprise data warehousing, analytic applications and data warehousing services. Organizations around the world rely on the power of Teradata's award-winning solutions (www.teradata.com) to get a single, integrated view of their business to enhance decision-making, customer relationships and profitability.
About NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR) is a leading global technology company helping businesses build stronger relationships with their customers. NCR's ATMs, retail systems, Teradata(R) data warehouses and IT services provide Relationship Technology(TM) solutions that maximize the value of customer interactions and help organizations create a stronger competitive position. Based in Dayton, Ohio, NCR (www.ncr.com) employs approximately 28,900 people worldwide.
NCR and Teradata are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries.
CONTACT: Teradata Division
NCR Corporation
Marchela Roca, 770-623-7024
marchela.roca@teradata-ncr.com
or
Ace Hardware
Paula Erickson, 630-990-6920
erickson@acehardware.com
SOURCE: NCR Corporation