SAS Launches 4 New Analytics Services and Updates SAS Customer Intelligence 360
As states relax stay-at-home orders and businesses reopen, marketing leaders are about to get very busy. The pandemic has left a lasting impact on consumer behavior – increasing reliance on digital commerce, the “buy local†movement, and the rise of conscious consumption have emerged as dominant themes in the second half of 2020.
While few marketing leaders could have predicted the outcome of the pandemic in terms of evolving customer preferences, intelligent analytics has made it easier to balance customer expectations with the value delivered.
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To help marketers take their customer experience (CX) to the next level, SAS, the privately held enterprise data management and analytics company announced yesterday, a slew of new service offerings. These are designed to help brands and marketers accelerate growth through a combination of analytics and hybrid marketing.
SAS launched four new services along with updates to SAS® Customer Intelligence 360 to help marketers get ahead of the curve with intelligent analytics. Here is a brief overview of the new launches and updates:
1. SAS 360 Digital Insight Service: Through its digital insight offering, SAS now enables marketers to seamlessly collect data from online channels and improve data-driven decision-making. The service will also allow marketers to tap into SAS’ deep domain expertise in digital analytics by collaborating with SAS experts and accessing reports to understand customer interactions with a brand’s digital touchpoints. Marketers will also be able to make real-time changes to deliver better customer experiences and improve metrics like conversions, customer retention, loyalty, and growth. SAS 360 Digital Insight Service includes:
a. Data collection, connectivity, and segmentation against a batch-created data profile
b. Data scrubbing
c. A set of static reports and analytical segments
d. Experienced digital analytics domain expertise
2. SAS 360 Customer Insight Service: The customer insight service helps marketers scale the applications of customer data to identify relevant business use-cases and build predictive models. The rich, new sources of insight from this service will allow marketers to engage with customers in new ways and accelerate CX initiatives. Services include:
a. Digital and on-premises data-matching and preparation for analytical modeling
b. Modeling for high-priority use-cases
c. Model assessments and reusable model pipelines for implementation and future modeling needs.
3. SAS 360 Attribution Service: SAS attribution service will allow marketers to develop an analytical attribution program. SAS will also provide experts to lead workshops to help marketers identify digital traffic sources, non-digital marketing touchpoints, conversion goals, and customer data hierarchies. By leveraging this service, marketers will be able to build a reusable multichannel attribution environment with reports, insights interpretation, recommendations for sharing across the organization.
4. SAS 360 Data Activation Service: The data activation service will help marketers collect, collate, clean, and prepare digital data to develop machine-learning-enabled workflows with event recognition and insights discovery. Real-time segments are created for activation by third-party systems – such as email providers, campaign management solutions, or web personalization and content delivery. Key capabilities include:
a. Data collection and segmentation against a streaming data profile
b. Enhanced digital ID resolution with data quality and master ID graph
c. A set of dynamic dashboard reports
SAS Customer Intelligence 360 updates: SAS has also updated its Customer Intelligence 360 suite to help marketers plan, collaborate, and make better data-informed decisions.
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What This Means for Marketers
While marketers are no strangers to analytics, cultural and organizational hurdles had prevented businesses from unleashing the full potential of marketing analytics. Transitioning to a data-driven marketing function requires more than just technology – practices such as agile delivery and a data-first approach are necessary to scale the technology successfully.
Put simply, marketers needed time to integrate day-to-day practices with advanced analytical capabilities.
Unfortunately, as we head into the second half of the year, time is a luxury that leaders no longer have. The business focus has shifted from preserving value to driving top-line growth. And that’s where SAS’ new product line up can help marketers rise to the challenge and cultivate the right skills, capabilitiesm and practices within teams to support strategic business goals.
Given the continued volatility and uncertainty, it isn’t surprising to see why analytics is becoming the most important tool for marketers looking to navigate choppy waters. However, what is surprising is how quickly vendors and solution providers have shared the technology and expertise needed for marketing teams to become analytics-driven in the true sense. Analytical capabilities that once might have taken marketing teams months or years to build can now come to life within a matter of weeks.
SAS’ new product rollout marks a new beginning for marketers and organizations looking to transition from a product/service-centred company to a customer-oriented business. It will be fascinating to see how the marketing intelligence/analytics ecosystem evolves over the next few months to catch up with changing consumer behaviors and larger economic realities.