Largest CRM Predictive Analytics Vendor: SAS

Leading IT market research and advisory firm IDC recognizes SAS as the largest predictive analytics vendor in CRM in its recent study, “Worldwide CRM Analytic Applications 2004 Vendor Shares: Strength and Churn” (IDC# 33866, August 2005).

This study examined market sizing and market share positioning for CRM analytics from 2002 to 2004. IDC clearly delineates the CRM analytics market into two major segments: core analytics and predictive analytics.

"SAS applauds IDC for distinguishing between core analytics and predictive analytics in its annual CRM analytics market study," says Jim Davis, chief marketing officer at SAS. "Core analytics are essential for understanding where an organization has been. Predictive analytics tell an organization where it should go next by providing action-ready intelligence. SAS has long stressed that predictive analytics are key to any successful CRM strategy."

Core analytics
IDC categorizes core analytics as those used to "define or analyze a current or past state and consist(ing) of both tools and packaged applications that compute frequencies, cross-tabs, and query and reporting cubes. These analytics correspond to the following IDC functional markets: query, reporting, and analysis, packaged data marts, and analytic applications using these functions or technologies."

Predictive analytics
IDC defines predictive analytics as including "all analytics, both tools and packaged applications, more complex in their mathematics than core analytics. Predictive analytics are used to determine the probable future outcome of an event or the likelihood of a current state where it is unknown. These analytics include data mining, clustering, decision trees, market basket analysis, regression modeling, neural nets, genetic algorithms, text mining, hypothesis testing, decision analytics, and so on.

"Predictive analytics may also include or be linked with a scoring capability. These correspond to advanced analytics in the following IDC functional markets: data mining and technical data analysis as well as analytic applications using the preceding described functions."

Delivering accurate, in-depth intelligence
"SAS Institute grew by 25.8 percent in 2004 and stands by a wide margin as the largest predictive analytics player in CRM," says Robert Blumstein, research director for CRM analytics and marketing applications at IDC. "Its offerings emphasize optimization over reporting but with increasingly accessible graphics that non-rocket scientists can readily understand and employ. To this purpose SAS Marketing Optimizationis built on the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform."

SAS®9provides an open and extensible platform that serves as the foundation for creating and delivering accurate, in-depth intelligence from across the organization. SAS Customer Intelligencesolutions are built on the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform and can be extended, customized and integrated with other SAS applications and software from other vendors to deliver new solutions and meet unique business requirements.