Neustar is probably best known for its work as a telecom number portability administrator. At its core, however, Neustar is a trusted provider of authoritative data – offering a wide array of information and analytics solutions that enable CIOs and marketing staff to leverage both internal and external data to better understand their customers, make business decisions based on more accurate and complete information, and drive new revenues and savings in the process.
“Companies are combining the data they collect from customers with data from third-party sources, like database providers and data marketplaces,” Mark Jackley of Neustar Enterprise Services blogged earlier this year. “The ultimate goal is to form a single view of their customer across all channels.”
The company’s Wireless Do-Not-Call Service was a stepping-stone to Neustar’s positioning as an information and analytics solution provider. Introduced several years ago, this service helps telemarketers meet Do-Not-Call List compliance requirements, which discourage them from using automated systems to call cell phones by setting up penalties for such practices. Neustar’s Wireless Do-Not-Call Service makes clear to telemarketers what numbers are and are not wireless by providing them with access to the most current information about wireline-to-wireless and wireless-to-wireline number movements.
In 2011, Neustar moved its information and analytics strategy forward further still with the acquisition of TARGUS Information, which brought real-time intelligence and data analytics services for caller ID and online information to the table. As a result, explains Andrew Stickel, director of product management for numbering services at Neustar, Neustar enables organizations to verify the identity and contact information – including landline and mobile numbers, e-mail addresses, and mailing addresses – for every customer, prospect, and lead instantly. Clients can leverage such information to do credit scoring or assess a customer’s propensity to buy a certain product or service, as just two examples, Stickel explains.
Aggregate Knowledge (News - Alert) was another acquisition that helped Neustar expand its portfolio and build on its data expertise. That deal provided Neustar with software that chief marketing officers use to gain insight into where marketing messages and advertising offer the biggest bang for the buck.
Neustar’s customer intelligence, media intelligence, and activation and targeting capabilities came together in March with the launch of PlatformOne, a cloud-based centralized marketing solution.
The customer intelligence component addresses identification, verification, and segmentation of customers, leads, and prospects. The media intelligence piece tracks real-time performance of key performance indicators for all media channels (including social media) and all audiences, and provides insights into the effectiveness and performance of online marketing. And the activation and targeting capabilities allow for personalized messaging via websites or other communications channels, and offer integration with existing CRM systems.
“Marketers now have a single go-to resource that provides an accurate portrait of their customers, and gives them the insights needed to present the right offers at the right time, and invest in the right media channels,” Stickel says.
PlatformOne was designed to address the frustrating issues marketers confront daily in a complex marketing ecosystem, he explained.
“Today, marketers need to interact with brands across multiple offline and online channels, decipher a deluge of customer and media data, and then intelligently employ that data,” notes Stickel. “PlatformOne does away with multiple point products, complexity and inefficiency, and instead provides one platform that integrates Neustar’s best-in-industry solutions for a comprehensive approach to marketing.”
Neustar’s broad portfolio and data expertise, along with the fact that it’s a neutral entity does not represent any one industry, makes it an ideal and trusted partner for organizations seeking information and analysis services, says Stickel. Indeed, several major institutions in the financial sector, among other verticals, use Neustar services today.
“We are an information and analytics leader,” says Stickel, “and we can help you get the most out of your data – and create a more accurate big picture and granular views of what’s happening and what is possible by supplementing and combining your information with third-party data.”
That’s important for businesses, he notes, because better understanding customers and prospects means reduced risk, and puts them in a better position for future growth.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
