IGNEOUS ANNOUNCES SPAM-FREE WAY TO EMAIL MASS AUDIENCES

New Igneous eCampaign eBusiness application facilitates the use of email as a strategic business tool in less time than it takes to heat a microwave dinner

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (PRWEB) June 12, 2003 -- The Igneous Group, Inc. (Igneous), an Internet Infrastructure company dedicated to infusing the Web into business strategy, today announced the availability of a Spam-free eBusiness application, called Igneous eCampaign, that enables the legitimate distribution of information to mass audiences. Igneous eCampaign works with company proprietary email lists and opt-in subscriptions, thus preserving the integrity of each and every broadcast message. In less time than it takes to heat a microwave dinner, users of Igneous eCampaign can create and distribute personalized communications containing critical, time-sensitive information such as product and service alerts, sales and marketing campaigns, financial reports, and human resources announcements that positively impact an organizations relationships with industry influencers, customers, employees, shareholders, partners and suppliers.

Broadcast email as a strategic business tool, particularly in terms of marketing campaigns and customer retention, is experiencing rapid growth. By 2004, Forrester Research predicts, spending on email marketing will reach $4.8 billion. About $3.2 billion of that will be customer-retention efforts, with the remainder paid to outsourcers helping marketers acquire new customers. By 2005, Jupiter Research forecasts, spending on email marketing will reach $7.3 billion, up from $164 million in 1999. Jupiter, too, sees the bulk of this spending going toward customer retention."1 Businesses who want to take advantage of the benefits that broadcast messaging has to offer will need to integrate applications like Igneous eCampaign in order to build and sustain credibility with target audiences.

Igneous eCampaign is ideally suited to businesses in any industry faced with the challenge of increasing productivity under the pressure of tighter budgets and limited resources. In addition, Igneous eCampaign contains built-in intelligence tools that process data and display results in a user-friendly report format. This feature is especially useful to management-level professionals who are not only responsible for spearheading operational efficiencies, but who are also becoming increasingly responsible to C-level executives for justifying how company dollars are spent.

Igneous eCampaign is a strategic business tool that can help companies sustain long term profitability by increasing the value of the product or service to the customer while reducing the cost of producing the product or service," said Geoff Caras, CEO of Igneous. Applications like Igneous eCampaign are paving the way for competitive advantages in three core areas of business strategy: operational excellence, customer intimacy, and product or service leadership."

Igneous eCampaign is designed for non-technical users, giving businesses greater control and ownership over eBusiness functions, and eliminating the need for expensive programmers or consultants, and is bundled with every Igneous integrated technology and service package. Existing customers will receive Igneous eCampaign as a free upgrade. In addition to Igneous eCampaign, Igneous provides a broad range of eBusiness applications that help bring businesses nearer to real time operation, and offers a wide variety of custom components that help businesses do more with less, including Database Development and Integration, Reporting, Graphing and Data Evaluation Tools, Macromedia Flash and Generator Integration, Video Streaming, and Forms and Workflows.

About The Igneous Group, Inc.

Igneous is an Internet Infrastructure company dedicated to infusing the Web into business strategy. For emerging businesses faced with budget constraints and resource allocation challenges, Igneous provides a nimble alternative to enterprise-level Internet systems, enabling growing companies to implement complete eBusiness solutions with the right technology at the right time. Igneous integrated technology and consulting service packages demystify the Web, and transform business processes and practices into strategic eBusiness initiatives that help organizations in all industries operate closer to real time, achieve operational excellence, improve customer intimacy, and build community. Established in 1990, Igneous is privately held, and is based in Santa Cruz, California. For more information about Igneous, visit www.igneous.com.

1 Triumvirate Technologies, Inc. (http://www.triumviratetechnologies.com/research.html#news)