SAS Ramps Up High-Performance Analytics

Deeper analytics is only a click away, thanks to SAS Institute. During its Premier Business Leadership Series 2012 conference in October, SAS launched the High-Performance Marketing Optimization solution, which allows marketers to deeply examine their campaigns, constraints, budgets, and frequency of contacts with customers.

The product enables users to run complex analyses and what-if scenarios in near-real time. If a particular result is not optimal, marketers can adjust what's deployed on their Web channels or via SMS or email, said Randy Guard, SAS's vice president of product management.

Online retailer Gilt Groupe is using SAS to not only track purchases but also to determine how often a consumer visits its site and what she does online or through its mobile app. Because the site is membership-based, Gilt Groupe can identify the brands and sales that will most appeal to customers.

"We've been using [SAS analytics] a lot for segmentation projects and building predictive models," Tamara Gruzberg, senior director of analytics and research at Gilt Groupe, told CRM.

With insight from SAS, Gilt Groupe also developed an opt-out risk score model that identifies customers who would prefer less frequent email messages from the company.

SAS also announced a revenue management and price optimization analytics solution at the show. Tailored specifically to hospitality, travel, sports, and entertainment companies, the product helps users assess demand for a product or service based on factors such as competitor pricing. One early adopter, MGM Resorts International, started a pilot program to measure the impact of pricing analytics on its revenue streams. "What they're doing is going through, looking at price sensitivity…and they're coming up with the optimal price to charge any particular customer set," Guard explained.

In addition to the predictive pricing solution, SAS also announced the Financial Crimes Suite for companies to run high-performance risk scenarios. This need for predictive fraud management is what Guard calls "the single biggest growth area for SAS."

Cyber theft and fraud costs Americans $1.52 billion annually, according to the Federal Trade Commission. To combat this, the Financial Crimes Suite lets companies determine which decisions need to be made after a cyber attack attempt. A large credit card company using the suite, for example, can minimize false positives or false alarms in customer scenarios (i.e., rejecting a legitimate transaction) by halting the transaction and following up with the customer to confirm the purchase.

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