Polk Signs $1.3 Million Licensing Agreement With MicroStrategy
22 September 1999
The Polk Company Signs $1.3 Million Licensing Agreement With MicroStrategy to Develop E-Business Applications; Deal Includes 10,000 MicroStrategy DSS Broadcaster(TM) Licenses for the Proactive Delivery of Personalized Vehicle Registration Information
VIENNA, Va., Sept. 22 -- MicroStrategy(R) Incorporated
, a leading worldwide provider of intelligent e-business
software, today announced a $1.3 million dollar licensing agreement with The
Polk Company. The agreement, signed in the third quarter, consists of software
licenses, maintenance and consulting services. Polk is the leading supplier
of marketing information to the motor vehicle industry and provides analytic
consulting services to its clients for the development of custom solutions.
Polk, based in Southfield, Mich., will use MicroStrategy's Intelligent
E-business Platform(TM) to build and deploy a number of e-business systems,
all of which are designed to assist in the understanding of vehicle sales and
marketing activity. Using information from each state's department of motor
vehicles, Polk tracks the date and location of all vehicle registrations in
the United States, down to the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) level,
allowing for very detailed analysis of issues, including market size, the
performance of marketing communications programs, dealer sales performance and
consumer loyalty. Polk then creates integrated solutions that meet the
complex and challenging needs of its clients in the automotive industry.
"This investment with MicroStrategy, combined with our partnerships with
other leading technology firms, enables us to improve the tools and
information that we provide our customers so they can better understand the
markets in which they operate," said Jim Hornbuckle, senior vice president of
Polk's Transportation Information Services group. "This ability is key to our
customers' benchmarking and, ultimately, improving their marketplace
performance. MicroStrategy DSS Suite will allow Polk to provide this
personalized knowledge to thousands of decision makers, enabling the delivery
of the right information to the right people at the right time. We are very
excited about our e-business initiatives that will result from this deal."
Polk's new e-business solution will generate personalized and easy-to-use
reports for busy decision-makers and email them directly to their desktops.
With a few mouse clicks, executives who depend on Polk's information for
making critical business decisions will have the data they need, when they
need it, and in a format they can use efficiently. By delivering personalized,
accurate and critical business information to its customers' fingertips, Polk
is meeting the demands of its customers, as well as advancing the evolution of
e-business.
"Savvy companies continue to recognize that e-business starts with a
complete understanding of customers, and they are turning to MicroStrategy to
gain this capability," said Michael J. Saylor, president and CEO of
MicroStrategy Incorporated. "Polk's embrace of our technology should allow
them to develop stronger relationships with their customers via multiple
electronic channels, significantly enhancing their e-business initiatives. We
are very excited to play a key role in Polk's continued e-business efforts."
"This agreement provides the direction for building the technical
foundation upon which our reporting services will be based," said Joseph
Kovach, Polk's chief information officer. "We have been making substantial
investments in upgrading our technical infrastructure and this agreement is
just one example of our investment. Working with MicroStrategy will allow us
to improve our productivity by providing for a common development platform and
increase our flexibility in the delivery of our information through several
mediums."
About The Polk Company
Polk has served the automotive industry for 77 years and is the longest
standing curator of automobile records in the United States. Founded in 1870,
Polk launched its motor statistical operations in 1922 when the first car
registration reports were published. It now provides multi-dimensional
intelligence information solutions to nearly every segment of the motor
vehicle industry as an analytical consultant and statistician.
Polk also serves as a direct-marketing resource; as a supplier of
demographic and lifestyle data and database-marketing services; as a publisher
of city directories; and as a data enabler for geographic information systems.
Based in Southfield, Mich., Polk is a privately held global firm,
currently operating in: the United States, Canada, England, France, Germany,
Australia, Spain, Holland and Costa Rica.
For more information, visit the Polk Web site at http://www.Polk.com.
About MicroStrategy Incorporated
MicroStrategy is a leading worldwide provider of intelligent e-business
software and related services. MicroStrategy's product line, MicroStrategy DSS
Suite(TM), enables both proactive and interactive delivery of information from
large-scale databases, providing Global 2000 enterprises a platform for
developing solutions that deliver insight and intelligence to their
enterprise, supply-chain, and customers.
MicroStrategy's platform enables users to query and analyze the most
detailed, transaction-level databases, turning data into business
intelligence. In addition to supporting internal enterprise users,
MicroStrategy's platform delivers critical business information beyond
corporate boundaries to customers, partners and supply chain constituencies
through a broad range of pull and push technology such as the Internet, e-
mail, telephones, pagers and other wireless communications devices.
MicroStrategy's platform is ideal for developing e-business solutions that are
personalized and proactive, and that reach millions of users. MicroStrategy
also offers a comprehensive set of consulting, training and support services
for its customers and partners.
MicroStrategy has over 750 customers across such diverse industries as
retail, telecommunications, finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals
and consumer packaged goods. Representative MicroStrategy customers include
American Express Travel Services, CVS Pharmacy, Harris Teeter, IMS America,
Kmart, MCI WorldCom, Merck-Medco, Nike, and Ralston Purina. MicroStrategy has
also entered into relationships with more than 185 systems integration,
application development and platform partners, including Axiom, HNC Software,
IBM, NCR, and Oracle.
For more information, please visit MicroStrategy's Web site:
http://www.microstrategy.com
MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy DSS Broadcaster, Intelligent E-business
Platform, and MicroStrategy DSS Suite are either trademarks or registered
trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain
other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners.
This press release includes statements that may constitute "forward-
looking" statements, usually containing the words "believe," "estimate,"
"project," "expect" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements
inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could
cause or contribute to such differences include continued acceptance of the
Company's products in the marketplace, the timing of significant orders,
delays in the Company's ability to develop or ship new products, market
acceptance of new products, competitive factors, general economic conditions,
currency fluctuations, and other risks detailed in the Company's registration
statements and periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. By making these forward-looking statements, the Company
undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes
after the date of this release.