January 18, 2017

Decision Software closed out 2016 with the third best performance over the 27 years we’ve been in operation. Sales were almost exactly as forecast, with gross revenue narrowly beating our forecast by 1.51%. Profits were a solid 9.4%. Highlights from our 2016 accomplishments include:

• A record-breaking year by our CYBERWARS system, turning in a 100% increase in top line revenue generated in online marketplaces such as Amazon.
• Completion of an email system enhancement that provides an alternative to our Amazon-based email platform. This new option boasts dedicated IP support and faster throughput for large volumes, among other benefits.
• New digital features for MarketWide, including a real-time web tracking component that collects website visitor metrics and writes them into the attached database.
• A nice business expansion, adding an agency who uses MarketWide for their twenty clients, along with our email deployment, website visitor and activity tracking, and web-based reporting.
• Renovations to our office, which improves our work area.
• Placing the finishing touches on our 5.2 version of MarketWide, with many internal improvements as well as loads of email and digital enhancements.

As the transition of brick and mortar retail to online marketplaces accelerates, there is fear and uncertainty among direct marketing agencies, particularly those with software platforms. As evidence of this, within the past year the Alterian system was sold by SDL, Teradata sold Aprimo, Merkle was acquired, and Experian announced plans to offload its email and cross-channel marketing business. In the midst of this seismic activity, DSI has steadfastly maintained our focus and ‘stay the course’ we have charted: transitioning from stodgy old direct mail and catalog databases to interactive, lightning fast, always-on digital platforms.

To compete in today’s fast-paced world, it’s no longer acceptable to update databases weekly. Email opens, bounces, clicks, website activity, and order confirmations happen around the clock, and marketing systems not designed to handle this will not survive. Today’s modern marketer is not willing to wait a week or even a day to view results from an email campaign – she wants it immediately, if not sooner. This is the vision we’ve been steadily working towards, and our results are impressive! Using DSI software and services, our clients today run fully automated campaigns with real time email deployment, track results instantly through our web dashboard, call our API to send order confirmations and surveys, and monitor visitor activity on their website. All these things were unheard-of a few years ago, when direct mail, catalog, and telemarketing were the primary communication channels.

In 2017, we plan to ‘double down’ on digital. As more clients realize the value in relevant, data-driven email marketing, the interest in our real time integrated email solution is intensifying. At the same time, we continue to enhance our website activity tracking and reporting system,  migrate our MarketWide software to the web, and improve MarketWide’s social media features. To our clients and partners: thank you for making us who we are and helping us achieve yet another successful year. We are fully committed to supporting you and continuing to enhance our services and software.