HCL Unica

I know Unica well and can make it do just about anything I need it to do. I love the abiity to call in custom code along the way for extremely complicated scenarios and optimum performance. Situations that would steer me to other applications are: If already a heavy SAS user with Enterprise Miner and/or Enterprise Guide I would seriously consider SAS CM; if already owning Teradata platform would seriously consider Teradata RM.

The tool works and we've already invested a great deal of time into it.

Its not user friendly and we want to branch out to another product that can do what Unica does but better.

When we worked in SAS we used macros before to perform all the tasks in the selection process. When things changed on a global level we modified the macro programs, and all the campaigns written with the macros automatically changed. This is impossible in Unica. We use templates to create the campaigns, but if the templates change, the old campaigns still run the older versions. With about 500 campaigns a year, it is impossible the update all the running campaigns manually with the newer version of a template.

If there are changes in data sources, it is really difficult to find out with unica campaigns are affected, and very time consuming to make the changes.

In SAS we it was possible to automatically document all our programs, so that we could easily search that documentation for the use of variables, files, calculations and so on, in UNICA this is all done manually.

Purple Square have a very successful relationship working with IBM and it's many business partners, and have a strong track record of successful product implementations - something we don't plan to change!

It is the most versatile, robust and user friendly tool I have come across.

We have a lot of ongoing campaigns built in Unica and overall it is a good tool.

I believe this product will no longer be active soon so I would not recommend it.

It's a long-term commitment and once all the users are trained, it becomes second nature.