RSTWIII Invests $29 million in Protocol Communications, Inc. 

December 29, 2000 - RSTW Partners III, L.P. (“RSTWIII”) invested $28.0 million of senior subordinated debt and $1.0 million of convertible preferred stock in Protocol Communications, Inc. (“Protocol”), a leading provider of eCRM services.  The proceeds of the financing were used to complete 4 acquisitions and provide working capital for Protocol’s continued growth. Protocol is a portfolio investment of Willis Stein & Partners, a leading private equity buyout firm based in Chicago, IL and BCI Partners, a leading multi-stage investor in communications, Internet infrastructure, eBusiness applications and media. 

Protocol is a leading provider of electronic customer relationship management (“eCRM”) services.  Protocol’s objective is to serve as a sales and marketing vendor/partner and help its clients increase their revenues, customer base and market share as well as enhance their customers’ loyalty.  Protocol achieves this objective by helping clients identify, acquire and retain their customers.  Protocol’s operating strategy is centered around utilizing its superior management team to develop intelligent marketing strategies for its clients.  In addition, Protocol’s strategic position is to operate as a fully integrated sales and marketing company, providing a full suite of CRM services.  Protocol’s service offering therefore includes not only call/contact center functions, but other functions as well.  Contact center activities include accepting in-bound calls for order entry, product inquiries and other help desk functions; assisting customers with ordering over and/or exploring a client’s web site; receiving and responding to customer e-mails; communicating with customers in a live chat room setting over the Internet; and automated voice response systems (providing touch-tone menu options and information to customers).  In addition to these contact center activities, Protocol also assists its clients through direct mail services (designing, producing and delivering literature), fulfillment services (low-SKU, “pick-pack-and-ship”), strategic marketing consulting, market research/information gathering and database management, which includes intelligent data mining, and consultative data organization and management to drive strategic marketing goals. 

Protocol enables its clients to identify, acquire and retain their customers, thereby increasing their revenue, customer base and market share.  Protocol designs and implements comprehensive solutions that utilize the Internet and other communication channels to provide high value-added services that address all the eCRM needs of its clients.  The importance of CRM, which encompasses all of a company’s customer contact in the sales, marketing and customer service process, has grown significantly over the last decade as the trend away from mass marketing and toward direct marketing has occurred.  Headquartered in Boston, Protocol has 29 locations in the United States and Canada providing a nationwide presence spanning coast to coast.