SAS Institute Inc is building up its analytical CRM portfolio with the release of Interaction Management, real-time analysis software for multi-channel, in- and out-bound customer interactions.

SAS says a key element of Interaction Management is its ability to work with any front-end system - both packaged and bespoke - across all channels to provide intelligence to help make the most of customer interactions. To achieve this, SAS is making the most of its heritage whereby it has supported and enabled interaction with virtually all available operating systems and databases.

Its focus on often-neglected inbound interactions as well as the more common outbound emphasis is also unusual, although success in changing inbound interactions is more dependant on changes in the way an organization does business than the software used to support it.

The third element is the use of SAS analytics to improve the quality of interactions. The Cary, North Carolina-based company said the software can analyze information from multiple sources from internally available information such as historical customer data to external sources like stock market feeds or even trends detected by SAS Data Miner, the SAS data mining application for unstructured text.

Its aim is to use multiple assessment techniques and information sources to provide organizations with intelligence about the customer based on both historic, current and external information to enable the organization to make a decision or offer a product or take any other form of suitable action to make the interaction more effective.

The company is building a strong reputation in the analytical CRM sector. Market research firm IDC identified SAS as the largest CRM analytic applications vendor in 2001 by revenue, showing a revenue increase of 43.5% in 2001, to increase its top-ranked market share by almost 4% in CRM analytic applications. It said SAS is leading the analytical CRM field by revenue for the third year in a row and now leads the CRM analytic applications market with an 18.1% share.

Interaction Management will be rolled out in stages over the next month or two, and the full suite will be available in the second quarter 2003. Meanwhile, it will be integrated with SAS CRM offerings in marketing automation, and across telecom, retail, financial service and pharmaceutical vertical market offerings.

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