Visual IQ rolls out software platform developed in India

Kochi, Aug 7: US-based Visual IQ announced the launch of its new software platform IQ 2.0, developed at its India centre here, to help companies achieve the highest return on their adspend.

Announcing the launch of the on-demand software suite at a press conference here, Visual IQ president Anto Chttilappilly said ''the platform provides actionable insights to advertisers and agencies to achieve the highest 'return on their advertising spend' (ROAS). The software has a full set of dashboarding and reporting capabilities that enable accurate and efficient reporting.'' Available in three versions -- 'Reporter', 'Envoy' and 'Sage' -- the software platform integrates and analyses three major data sets: advertisement performance data from different media channels including online; response data from call centres, web-sites and surveys; customer specific data such as their purchase and browsing behaviour.

The price of the products ranges from US$ 5,000 per month to US$ 35,000 per month for 'Reporter' and 'Envoy'. For the high-end 'Sage', the remuneration was based on a percentage of the client savings.

Mr Chittilappilly said the software was conceptualised at the company's headquarters at Waltham, USA, and developed at the Visual IQ centre at Kochi.

The company, which has big corporates in the US and Europe such as Microsoft, MSN, Cathay-Pacific, Pfeizer and Cadburys and banks such as Wachovia among its clients -- was looking at increasing its presence in Asia-Pacific, especially the emerging markets of India and China.

Stating that its products were useful only for companies with huge adspends, Mr Chittilappilly said Indian companies had so far not shown much interest in their product as they were not too conscious about the value for money spent on advertising.

''Indian and Chinese companies believe in 'push advertising' where they blast the brand message as much as possible on each channel without wanting to know about the impact being made by such advertising. This is perhaps because the companies are functioning in a near-monopolistic situation and are reaping huge profits,'' he added.

Mr Vincent Chittilappilly, Vice-President, Technical Operations, said the company was planning to double its workforce at Kochi from 35 to 70 by the end of this year and increase it to 200 by next year.

UNI