FastForward's Epic Solution Aids In Promo Development

The XML-based Easy Platform for Interactive Commerce (EPIC) incorporates "plug-and-play tools for folks [developing promotions," said Dana Tower, vice president of partnerships and alliances at FastForward.

EPIC can be configured to generate coupons, promote sweepstakes and spit out customized incentives to Web users, Tower said. FastForward clients pick and choose among those and other elements, paying only for the ones they use.

"It's a long, arduous process to use CRM applications to get this type of information," he said. "But a lot of our clients have Siebel [or some other CRM application halfway or all-the-way implemented. They want to be able to use that with our data." EPIC's XML-based architecture permits that type of interoperability and can also be tied in with clients' legacy data stores, he said.

FastForward's founder and CEO, Sergio Radovcic, is "a dyed-in-the-wool techie" who used to develop branding strategies for high-profile companies such as Coca-Cola and Sony, Tower said.

Radovcic learned the technology side at Agency.com. At the height of the dot-com revolution, e-business integrators typically passed off marketing to another party serving the client, he said.

FastForward, based here, recently launched a program to attract solution providers, which often still prefer to outsource customer marketing needs. Tower said it makes sense for integrators and other e-business outfits to work with FastForward because "they do not need to be reinventing a couponing or sweepstakes promotion mechanism. . . . This is a potential new revenue stream for [systems integrators, and they also get marketing credibility."

One of the inaugural partners in the EPIC Partnership Program is Full Tilt. EPIC's capabilities have been put to use for Full Tilt customers such as GlaxoSmithKline, said Steve Bass, executive director at King of Prussia, Pa.-based Full Tilt.

"Our clients are empowered to set the business rules, which are wizard-driven," Bass said. For its part, Full Tilt helps collect customer data, set up campaigns and integrate promotions into clients' existing Web strategies, he said.

Full Tilt, with practices in the financial services, consumer packaged goods and pharmaceuticals verticals, buys "events",whether a contest, a coupon set or another marketing element,from FastForward, then resells them to clients, Bass said, adding that EPIC allows solution providers and customers to set out a number of different types of incentives and see which ones users respond to best. Users, for example, might not only redeem a coupon but also enter a contest. If sweepstakes appear to generate more interest than do coupons, the company offering the promotions can adjust marketing accordingly.