AIB in online customer retention pact


26 Mar 2004

AIB’s business banking division has signed a deal with a young up and coming Dublin software company to deploy software that enables it to acquire and retain customers online.

East Wall Road-based Red Sky signed the deal with AIB recently to enable the bank’s business banking division to more effectively attract and keep customers through the online medium, using a melding of online advertising, analysis, business intelligence and customer relationship management technologies.

The managing director of Red Sky Keelan Cunningham told siliconrepublic.com: “The technology goes beyond CRM as it enables businesses to first attract customers and then analyse their behaviour in such a way that real efforts can be made to encourage them to conduct repeat business.”

Before establishing Red Sky two and a half years ago, Cunningham was web development manager at Independent News and Media where he played a leading role in developing and managing the websites for Independent Group ventures like Unison, iTouch and the Independent Directory.

Red Sky, which employs five people, has grown 300pc per annum since establishing and is self-financed and profitable. The company’s products and services cover the entire gambit of online marketing, email marketing, online advertising, campaign management, web development and design and data capture profiling.

Cunningham explained that the company’s flagship product Visitor Intelligence, which has also been deployed by VHI and Champion Sports, works on an ASP (application service provider) basis enabling businesses to subscribe for the use of the technology. He added that the technology, which has been developed in Linux and is accessible through a web browser, is cross platform and can be deployed on most business’ systems.

“The technology follows the whole pattern of marketing, customer acquisition, customer retention and business intelligence, otherwise described in marketing circles as attention, interest, desire and action (AIDA). For example, blue chip companies that want to market themselves effectively online can use the technology to ensure that they appear in the top 10 search category of their choice as well as monitor potential and existing customer behaviour through the use of legitimate web beacons (snippets of code) and cookies. The end users of the technology would typically be a firm’s business development manager, sales manager and marketing manager,” Cunningham said.

The company, he added, has also signed deals with Esat BT, Eircom, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, iTouch, Regency Hotel Group, the Royal Hospital Kinmainham and has recently signed a deal with a UK-based retail banking chain.

By John Kennedy