Acxiom & diwo Partnership Goes Beyond Marketing, Delivers Business Optimization Solutions

Partnership will provide new optimization capabilities that leverage customer data and AI technology to inform accurate decision-making and improve business outcomes

Acxiom, the customer intelligence company whose data-driven solutions create business growth by enabling better customer experiences, announced a new partnership and optimization solutions with diwo™, providers of a unique cognitive decision-making platform. Acxiom Optimization Solutions, powered by diwo, will combine customer level data with artificial intelligence technology to deliver enhanced insights into true market demand. These solutions equip businesses to unlock new revenue growth opportunities, reduce costs and enable more informed, accurate and timely decision-making that improves business outcomes. The partnership will initially focus on larger retailers and automakers to help with inventory management and optimizing incentives with additional industry expansion and capabilities coming in the near future.

“We are excited about the possibilities this new partnership with diwo will bring to the market as it combines Acxiom’s more than 50 years of ethical data use, identity resolution and innovative solutions expertise with diwo’s last-mile analytics platform,” said David Skinner, chief strategy officer at Acxiom. “Due to the pandemic, long-established predictors of consumer demand are no longer valid, and the Retail and Auto sectors especially are demanding new data-driven answers. We are excited to fill that need and expect more opportunities in other industries.”

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“We see too many organizations still relying on reports, dashboards and even spreadsheets to run their businesses. This unique partnership combines brands’ operational data, Acxiom’s third-party customer data, identity management and the diwo platform to transform decision-making,” said Krishna Kallakuri, Chief Executive Officer at diwo. “Cross-functional teams from supply chain to marketing can automatically leverage more holistic customer data insights and the power of AI to dramatically improve business operations and deliver millions of dollars of value to the bottom line.”

For Retailers

In today’s customer-driven business environment, it is imperative to have the right inventory available in the right place, at the right time and at the right price. As companies are navigating e-commerce and in-store supply chain challenges due to COVID-19, there is an opportunity for merchandising and marketing teams to collaborate to regain lost revenue and improve profitability by having a cross-functional planning approach to maximize the efficiency of where to keep and move inventory and to fuel marketing.

Traditionally, inventory planning decisions are made based on historical aggregated data and spreadsheets. There is an inherent lack of customer data-driven precision in the inventory planning and allocation process, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Marketing decision-making is typically done independently and is based on customer level data that has been curated specifically for campaigns. This separation between functions creates data and insight gaps which contribute to inefficiencies in inventory planning and deployment. Acxiom Optimization Solutions bridge this gap to help deliver coordinated and consistent decision-making, better business results and improved customer experiences. The new solutions enable retailers to optimize measurement and inventory in a more agile, data-driven manner by aligning the marketing team’s inputs with the inventory decision-making process.

“Leveraging customer data and AI isn’t just meant for more personalized marketing, it is key to informing better business decisions across the company from inventory management to marketing messaging,” said Mike Wagner, managing director for Acxiom’s retail and consumer group. “This solution is the first of its kind, and a large retailer that uses this platform has seen around $35-45 million annual savings and a 50 percent improvement in inventory allocation.”

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For Automakers

As auto sales recover during the pandemic, the demand to meet profit objectives remains incredibly high. Incentives help drive sales in the automotive industry. Acxiom Optimization Solutions will provide faster recommendations for personalized incentives for greater impact that will reduce operational costs.

“Incentives planning is one of the most important levers a manufacturer has to get right. In the past, it has relied on a mix of disconnected data, ad-hoc analysis and institutional knowledge to adjust and optimize programs,” said John Campos, managing director for automotive at Acxiom. “These new solutions bring new customer signals and more sophisticated technology to enable auto manufacturers to better personalize incentives and drive efficiency never before possible.”

Acxiom’s retail practice serves 35 of the top retailers and the auto team serves eight of the top 10 automotive companies in the world, helping brands in these industries with their customer relationship management and data-driven marketing needs.

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