BNSF and UnitedHealth Group Win 2006 Gartner CRM Excellence Awards

GBC Presented with Gartner CRM Innovator Award

STAMFORD, Conn., September 25, 2006 — Gartner, Inc. announced the winners of its eighth annual CRM Excellence Awards. The awards were given to BNSF Railway Company in the “Excellence in Enterprise CRM” category, and UnitedHealth Group in the “Excellence in Sales, Marketing or Customer Service” category.

The awards, which were given to an enterprise in each of the two categories that most clearly demonstrates excellence in its customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives, were presented during Gartner's CRM Summit, held September 11-13 in Chicago.

Six award finalists – AIS, BNSF, Harry Rosen, Hewlett-Packard, Netbank, and UnitedHealth Group – were selected by Gartner to present their case studies at the Gartner CRM Summit to more than 800 attendees who provided their feedback as to which company they believed did the best job overall.

In the “Excellence in Enterprise CRM” category, the finalists were selected on how well a CRM initiative spanning multiple functions of the organization demonstrated excellence.

“We are honored to be recognized by Gartner, a leader in technology, as well as recognized among this elite group of companies,” said Elizabeth Obermiller, director, ERM systems. “Our success was driven by the ongoing executive commitment and passionate and talented teams, who were able to implement a planned and phased approach with advanced application of analytics to monitor measure and drive success.”

In the “Excellence in Sales, Marketing or Customer Service” category, finalists were selected based on the qualities and results of an initiative or project that targeted a specific business function.

“We are excited to receive this award for our partnership with eLoyalty to implement a new, cutting-edge call center technology application called Behavioral Analytics™,” said John Reinke, a senior vice president of Uniprise, a UnitedHealth Group company. “This technology allows us to engage in deeper, more personally relevant phone conversations with each consumer who speaks with a customer care professional. Health care consumers often face complex and emotional issues, and this is a great example of how technology can help improve their experience.”

Gartner presented the CRM Innovator Award to GBC. This award is given for the CRM project that displays the most innovative use of CRM technologies and strategies.

"At GBC, our goal is to help our customers improve their business performance by ensuring efficient technical service and real-time information.  We are proud to be recognized by Gartner for our successful implementation of our innovative Field Service management system, enabling us to continue to deliver exceptional value to our customers," said Tim Spencer, vice president, Technical Service Division.    

The criteria used in evaluating CRM Excellence Award candidates included components defined in Gartner's Eight Building Blocks of CRM: CRM vision, CRM strategy, valued customer experience, organizational collaboration, CRM processes, CRM information, CRM technology and CRM metrics.

The Gartner Customer Relationship Management Summit 2006 is the most comprehensive conference of customer strategies and technologies ever held. It offers the latest actionable insights and best practices in all areas of CRM — from business strategy to software implementation, from change management to metrics. The Gartner Customer Relationship Management Summit hits the critical spot between strategic planning and tactical advice for IT organizations as they look to grow their customer base, cross-sell to established customers, segment and retain their most valuable customers and service them more efficiently. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/us/crmsummit.

Contact:


Christy Pettey
Gartner
+1 408 468 8312
christy.pettey@gartner.com


About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the indispensable partner to 60,000 clients in 10,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,000 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants in 80 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.