SAS and Assetlink to provide most powerful and comprehensive Integrated Marketing Management platform on the market
CARY, N.C. – SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services, is acquiring Assetlink, a pioneer in marketing resource management (MRM). Combining SAS® Customer Intelligence offerings with Assetlink’s leading marketing resource management solutions into an integrated marketing management platform will make it easier for marketers to plan, create and optimize marketing programs.
The integration of SAS with Assetlink is a boon to customers already using SAS in the marketing department. Marketing organizations are increasingly challenged to execute more sophisticated marketing programs while holding staffing levels flat. Assetlink brings needed workflow management across multiple channels to help marketers avoid potential bottlenecks. With Assetlink, SAS helps manage and optimize marketing operations through more efficient asset management, increased measurement capabilities and improved financial reporting.
“This combination makes perfect sense for both partners — and, more importantly, for the marketers they serve,” commented David Raab, Principal at Raab Associates. “It allows SAS to offer the full range of marketing planning and execution features that are part of high-end marketing automation suites.”
“SAS’ powerhouse analytics help companies identify areas to improve marketing, build stronger customer relationships and increase profitability. Bottlenecks in budgeting, planning and resource allocation can hinder effective marketing,” said Jim Davis, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at SAS. “Combining Assetlink’s marketing resource management capabilities with SAS’ leading customer intelligence solutions helps organizations identify what’s working and what needs improvement. Marketers can be more efficient, while delivering smarter campaigns on a larger scale than would otherwise be possible.”
The integration of SAS and Assetlink addresses areas not currently supported by other solutions in the market:
– Capability to manage inbound marketing and access real-time analytics, essential for choreographing relevant communications within the call center, website, and mobile and social media channels.
– Advanced analytics, including the ability to predict customer attrition, calculate customer profitability, and discern topics and sentiment from consumer reviews and complaints.
Marketing optimization, including the ability to select the best combination of customer, offer and channel to maximize a given business objective, such as profit.
– Data management and cross-channel data integration capabilities portable to any data warehouse platform, essential for a single, accurate view of the customer across all channels.
“Data collected by marketing operations management solutions is a rich source of information,” added Chetan Saiy, CEO of Assetlink. “By applying powerful SAS Analytics to the data captured by Assetlink, CMOs and marketing professionals can discover how to get more out of their marketing resources and identify new opportunities from which to wring value.”
The acquisition positions SAS as a leader within integrated marketing management (IMM). First described by analyst firm Gartner, IMM refers to an increasingly prevalent strategy of integrating people, processes and technologies.
According to Gartner, by 2014, organizations that develop an integrated marketing strategy “will deliver a 50% higher ROMI [Return on Marketing Investment] than those that don’t.”1
SAS and Assetlink customers will benefit from SAS’ commitment to continually strengthening its products. Thirty-five years of uninterrupted revenue growth allows SAS to reinvest more than 20 percent of its revenues in R&D each year, resulting in expanded offerings related to cloud computing, unstructured data and grid computing, for example. In addition, SAS has more than 11,000 employees in more than 50 countries and 400 SAS offices to provide local, hands-on support for customers.
About SAS
SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions delivered within an integrated framework, SAS helps customers at more than 50,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®.
SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2011 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.
1 Gartner, Inc. “Focus on Integrated (Rather Than Enterprise) Marketing Management” by Kimberly Collins, Oct. 6, 2010
