TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Contact about HCL Unica

Please fill out the form below to get in touch.

HCLSoftware

Connect with HCLSoftware

What are you interested in?

Already have an account?

You hereby consent to have TrustRadius share the information supplied on this form with HCLSoftware so that HCLSoftware and TrustRadius may contact you in regard to the information requested.

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    HCL Unica

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AHCL Unica is available as a cloud or on-premise solution that provides fully integrated marketing automation software for enterprise. It includes enterprise marketing automation tools that optimize marketing activities, to ensure excellent customer experiences and data privacy.N/A

    SmartFocus, now part of Actito

    Score7.3 out of 10
    N/ASmartFocus offers real-time interaction management software. Their messaging cloud marketing platform encompasses email, social, mobile and analytics capabilities. Founded in 1999 as EmailVision, SmartFocus has grown to serve customers across the globe; SmartFocus boasts over 2,500 customers of its Message Cloud, including HP, Mercedes-Benz, and others. It's features are relatively broad and encompassing, though central to it is the ability to build and launch email marketing campaigns. It also…N/A
    Pricing
    HCL UnicaSmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    HCL UnicaSmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    HCL UnicaSmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of HCL Unica and SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.6
    3 Ratings
    22% above category average
    SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG email editor9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic content9.24 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content9.24 Ratings00 Ratings
    Landing pages9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    A/B testing9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    List management9.53 Ratings00 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead Management
    Comparison of Lead Management features of HCL Unica and SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.7
    2 Ratings
    22% above category average
    SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    -
    Ratings
    Lead nurturing automation9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead scoring and grading9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data quality management9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated sales alerts and tasks9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead segmentation and distribution9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Campaign Management
    Comparison of Campaign Management features of HCL Unica and SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.4
    2 Ratings
    24% above category average
    SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    -
    Ratings
    Calendaring9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Event/webinar marketing9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social Media Marketing
    Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of HCL Unica and SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.7
    2 Ratings
    26% above category average
    SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    -
    Ratings
    Social sharing and campaigns9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social profile integration9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of HCL Unica and SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.7
    2 Ratings
    27% above category average
    SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of HCL Unica and SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Feature
    HCL Unica
    9.6
    2 Ratings
    24% above category average
    SmartFocus, now part of Actito
    -
    Ratings
    API9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-based workflow & approvals9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizability9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Salesforce.com9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.73 Ratings00 Ratings
    Third-party software integrations9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    HCL UnicaSmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Small Businesses
    Vbout
    Score9.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Bloomreach
    Score9.2 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Iterable
    Score8.2 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    HCL UnicaSmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (19 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (13 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.8
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    HCL UnicaSmartFocus, now part of Actito
    Likelihood to Recommend
    HCLSoftware
    I think it is wel suited for a business with a lot of one on one relations in the database. For example a supermarket that sells products to a client and gives a reduction on that product. It is nice if the selection process is not to complex and does not involve to many calculations. It is also nice if it is very clear what you want to follow up. In our environment we have lots of many-to-many relations. for example one product is held by more then one client. And that client might have more of those products with other clients. These kind of situation demands for a lot of calculations with derived fields(*), and there things go far too slow. Unica is probably not such a good solution for us, because our environment is too complex, and so is to process of creating the selection, we often have to change things in the selection flows. Because of the complexity it is difficult to see what the flow is exactly doing afterwoods, it also takes to much time to modify existing campaigns. The interface is not handy to work with, if you have long lists of variables, of tables or derived fields(*) you have to scroll through trough them, you can not really search them or reorder them. You can not drag and drop fields or other objects like derived fields in the flow, what would be easy if you have to make frequent changes to the proces flow. When you copy objects something the content of the object changes because the links with other objects or lost. (*) derived field: field to calculate something
    Read full review
    Actito
    Before we used SmartFocus we had a simple bespoke drag and drop builder, where we could add as many "templates" as we wanted. In SmartFocus, the drag and drop builder is smoother and better, but you can't add your own templates. If you are happy with the provided templates, then building newsletters will be really good experience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    HCLSoftware
    • Ability to translate Multiple SQL queries into a very easy to use visual GUI.
    • Provides the ability to pre-define segments, run them once in off hours, store them in their own system tables for quick youth and a significant reduction in CPU utilization on the database.
    • It’s use of Reusable objects. Including user variables to pre-define calculations one time, macros that you can create and pass values to parameterize the SQL code And the creation of templates to easily replicate work.
    • It’s ability to bring in external data on the fly that can very easily be mapped into any flowchart.
    • It’s flexibility and creating UNIX script via triggers to automate sending of files to multiple vendors with different FTP sites
    • It’s flexibility in the output layouts that it can create.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Actito
    • Push newsletters to customers
    • Managing campaigns
    • Drag and drop builder
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    HCLSoftware
    • Greater integration of real time (Interact) capabilities with outbound channels, in particular IBM eMessage Email & SMS delivery.
    • Additional outbound channels to be integrated into eMessage, including Facebook Fanpage & Twitter DM broadcasts. At the moment these are possible only through custom additional integration.
    • Support for additional marketing database technology, e.g. MySQL, Exasol, ParAccel, WX2.
    • Provision of database technology with software purchase, as Web technology (IBM WebSphere Express) is supplied for free, but no database is supplied - since IBM also market DB2, which is a supported technology it seems a shame.
    Read full review
    Actito
    • Drag and drop builder
    • 2-factor authentication
    • Internal integration (the system is too big for an average user what make it hard to use sometimes)
    • Image gallery reliability
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    HCLSoftware
    There are three main factors to renew a licence: 1) Cost to migrate to another platform would be rather expensive and time consuming, plus the requirement of retraining employees to use a new tool 2) It has been proven time and time again that it is a market leader in the space (10 years +) 3) It can be built upon, with the addition of additional IBM EMM modules - despite theories it does have very strong digital capabilities.
    Read full review
    Actito
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    HCLSoftware
    Unica provides functionality that is very simple and easy to use. For reporting, we can see Unica system tables. Contact history table, response history tables. We have all the information in one place. Performance-wise, Unica also handles large volumes of data and can run a 5-million-record campaign within minutes. This is something great.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Actito
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    HCLSoftware
    I didn't use the Unica support since it is with IBM, only before.
    Read full review
    Actito
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    HCLSoftware
    - We had to rebuild a part of the datamart afterwards to tighten up and simplify the selection process. But as it was too time consuming to rebuild all the existing campaigns, we no run campaigns on different versions of the datamart. - The response tracking of the campaigns never worked out well, it was impossible to implement a direct response where there is a link between the lead and the response in our operational process
    Read full review
    Actito
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    HCLSoftware
    The contact history and the response history are so powerful. You can track whatever you want to help the call center to push relevant offers to our customer. In addition, predictive models can be built, with patience, in IBM Campaign. If you have some complaints from the call center about any campaigns, you can easily validate it into the contact or response history.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Actito
    We need a service where we can have support when necessary and a system that will handle a high amount of campaigns, with the functionality where even a junior member of the team can create a campaign from assets provided by the graphic team. SmartFocus has that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    HCLSoftware
    • It helps my clients drive their business which in turn, drives more profit for them.
    • It helps my clients determine what works, and what doesn't work, in terms of their social marketing campaigns.
    • It helps navigate proper budgeting through determining what clients' users respond to, and what they find unique.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Actito
    • By using Smart Focus we massively cut the cost of creating a new e-mail campaign
    • On the other hand, the cost of SmartFocus is much higher than a competitor
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    HCL Unica Screenshots

    Screenshot of HCL Unica Deliver is the email marketing and messaging execution module of the HCL Unica platform.

Its scalable digital messaging engine helps enterprise marketers design, personalize, and send high-volume, data-driven communications across multiple customer engagement channels.

It’s built for complex and compliant omni-channel campaigns with advanced segmentation, behavioral triggers, and real-time customer data.

Key channels supported include:
• Email — for personalized bulk and trigger-based mailings.
• SMS — send text messages to mobile subscribers.
• WhatsApp — conversational and promotional messaging.
• In-app and Push notifications — mobile push alerts via apps.