SAS listed as a leader in CRM Analytics Magic Quadrant

SAS, the leader in business intelligence, is listed as a leader in Gartner's new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Analytics Suite Magic Quadrant*. This Magic Quadrant focuses on vendors that target a broad range of analytic issues specifically in terms of a CRM application. SAS is listed in the upper right-hand Leader quadrant based on vision and ability to execute.

Gartner's Magic Quadrant positions vendors in a particular market segment based on their vision and ability to execute that vision. Gartner evaluated 12 vendors for the first CRM Analytics Suite Magic Quadrant and placed SAS in the "leader's quadrant" for CRM analytics.

Gartner defines the CRM analytical market as being comprised of those user organisations that seek a deeper and more complete understanding of their customers, or their customer's relationship with the user organisation through the use of packaged applications. Leaders are vendors who are performing well today, have a clear vision of market direction and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership position in the market.

"SAS's listing in the leadership quadrant is confirmation that SAS enables companies to create customer intelligence and leverage that insight into their CRM initiatives," says Andre Zitzke, chief technology officer, SAS Institute. "The creation of this new Magic Quadrant reflects Gartner's efforts to educate customers on the need to incorporate analytics into their CRM efforts."

According to a recent Gartner report, operational CRM investments in areas such as call centres and field sales have yet to produce a significant return on investment.

The report stated: "Hoping to distil valuable insights from collected data, enterprises are now turning to CRM analytics. The economic downturn has increased pressure to achieve near-term results by leveraging available resources as much as possible. It has become critical to make more efficient and effective resource allocations, and these depend on enterprises' ability to glean insights that can help improve operations or enhance sales effectiveness.

"During 2002, enterprises will seek to attain and leverage greater customer insight by redoubling their analytic efforts, granting broader and deeper access to the data, and exploring advanced data-mining techniques." [Source: Gartner report prepared by Gareth Herschel January 2002 "CRM Analytics Will Command Attention in 2002".]

SAS believes it has the most complete solution on the market for supporting the entire decision-support process of managing customer relationships. Organisations can collect data at all customer contact points and turn that data into knowledge for understanding and anticipating customer behaviour, meeting customer needs, building more profitable customer relationships, and gaining a holistic view of a customer's lifetime value.

*The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted March 2002 by Gartner and is reused with permission. Gartner's permission to print or reference its Magic Quadrant should not be deemed to be an endorsement of any company or product depicted in the quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is Gartner's opinion and is an analytical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It measures vendors against Gartner-defined criteria for a marketplace. The positioning of vendors within a Magic Quadrant is based on the complex interplay of many factors. Gartner does not advise enterprises to select only those firms in the Leaders segment. In some situations, firms in the Visionary, Challenger, or Niche Player segments may be the right match for an enterprise's requirements. Well-informed vendor selection decisions should rely on more than a Magic Quadrant. Gartner research is intended to be one of many information sources and the reader should not rely solely on the Magic Quadrant for decision-making. Gartner expressly disclaims all warranties, express or implied of fitness of this research for a particular purpose."