First place and third place in the CRM Best Practice Award go to update customers

KUHNKE Automation wins gold award, bronze for Energie Steiermark

Vienna, November 6, 2008 +++ Projects with update software AG’s CRM system have once again won prizes and two of the six awards in the CRM Best Practice Award at the CRM-expo in Nuremberg. In the "CRM enhancement" category, the jury awarded KUHNKE Automation the gold award, and Energie Steiermark won third place. This new category at the Best Practice Award singles out CRM projects that have been successful for at least one year or that have been enhanced and optimized on this basis. With the awards for KUNKE Automation and Energie Steiermark, the CRM Best Practice Awards have gone to update users for the sixth time in a row. Kuhnke Automation GmbH & Co. KG, Malente, won the gold award with its CRM project in customer-oriented technology management. The automation specialist KUHNKE Automation, which has implemented update.seven with the assistance of the CRM service provider POWERCASE Formula CRM GmbH, is currently seeking software-supported, proactive contact with its customers in order to ensure long-term customer loyalty and increased competitive ability. Energie Steiermark, the third-place winner, has significantly enhanced its existing CRM project -- using the CRM solution update.seven and supported by the CRM full service provider Sensix GmbH. This large Austrian energy provider has successively directed all company processes towards identifing customer needs as well as possible and satisfying them with precise offers.

Kuhnke Automation GmbH & Co. KG is a system partner for small and medium-sized machine and system manufacturers. It specializes in the solution of customer-specific automation tasks using top technology. Before the introduction of a CRM solution, Marketing and Sales at KUHNKE Automation did not have a lot of customer information available. The market was frequently surveyed only after product development. With the CRM solution update.seven, introduced in 2007, today KUHNKE Automation identifies profitable customers in the machine and system manufacturing and medical technology sectors, and it addresses them purposefully. Thanks to the successful CRM project, approximately 70 employees in Marketing, Sales, and Service at KUHNKE Automation are working more closely together, so that sales opportunities are recognized more easily, customer inquiries are answered faster, and projects are implemented more efficiently. The information collected about the customer also reaches beyond inspiration for new and improved products and solutions. With respect to KUHNKE Automation’s CRM project, the jury emphasized especially that the company has made the jump from classic product development and marketing to customer-oriented 1:1 design of solutions -- and this in four different product categories simultaneously.

With more than 600,000 customers and 1,900 employees, Energie Steiermark AG is one of the largest energy providers in Austria. The company’s initial CRM approaches in 2001, which were directed primarily towards the optimization of customer management, were no longer sufficient with respect to the competition on the energy market, the increasing price competition, and the interventions of the regulating authorities. With its expanded CRM project, Energie Steiermark consistently followed the path away from product orientation towards customer orientation. The energy provider has harmonized and networked its customer data and processes with update.seven, and today is in a position to make customers offers based on an active analysis of their need structure. The jury especially appreciated that with the CRM project, this one-time monopolist has succeeded in making its customers loyal even in today’s very tough competition on the energy market. Precisely due to efficient complaint management with the direct offering of solution possibilities, Energie Steiermark has been able to avoid customer defections very successfully.


About the CRM Best Practice Award

The well-known CRM Best Practice Award is awarded each year on the occasion of the CRM-expo in Nuremberg by the trade fair organizer asfc and the trade journal acquisa. It rewards exemplary practical CRM examples that can serve as benchmarks for other companies. The focus is not just on the software, but also on the orientation of the entire company and its processes towards the customer. The high-quality jury consisted this year of well-known, internationally-renowned CRM specialists. Gold, silver, and bronze awards are presented by the jury in two categories: CRM introduction and CRM enhancement.


About update software AG

update software AG ( www.update.com) was founded in Vienna in 1988. With nearly 300 employees and sales of EUR 32.5 million in 2007, it is the leading European supplier of premium CRM solutions. update software AG is listed on the German stock exchange in Frankfurt am Main. Today, update’s products are used by more than 1300 companies and more than 150,000 users. update’s clients include, among others: 3M, American Express Bank and Financial Management, the advertising department of the newspaper group BILD, AstraZeneca, BAWAG P.S.K., Canon, DuPont, ESTAG, Kärcher, LBS Nord, MagnaSteyr, Pernod Ricard, ratiopharm, Saint-Gobain Isover, Sony Deutschland, UnicreditBank Hungary as well as the Sparkasse Bremen and 200 other German savings banks. update also has strategic partnerships with companies such as Atos Origin, Hewlett Packard, Sensix, and Steria Mummert Consulting.


Contact:

update software Germany GmbH		Möller Horcher Public Relations GmbH
Kerstin Schmidt		Gabriele Horcher
Darmstädter Landstr. 125		Ludwigstr. 74
D-60598 Frankfurt am Main		D-63067 Offenbach/Main
Tel.: +49 (0)69-427231-101		Tel.: +49 (0)69-809096-52
Fax: +49 (0)69-427231-201		Fax: +49 (0)69-809096-59
kerstin.schmidt@update.com		gabriele.horcher@moeller-horcher.de
www.update.com		www.moeller-horcher.de