SAS Customers Hit "BI Home Runs"
Business intelligence (BI) takes raw data and turns it into usable information that helps executives make better business decisions – leading to improved processes, increased sales and savings, and a better bottom line. Companies that are using BI are setting themselves apart from the competition, and a Computerworld special report called "BI home runs" features 15 companies that are stellar examples of better business decisions through BI, including three SAS customers – United Pipe & Supply, Dreyfus and Highmark:
United Pipe & Supply
"Staying Stocked During Disaster"
While many companies still haven't recovered from Hurricane Katrina, United Pipe & Supply Co. managed to keep growing.
Chemical plants along the Gulf Coast that produce the plastic resin used for making PVC pipe were shut down by the storm, which sent prices soaring and severely limited supplies for most pipe dealers. But according to the Computerworld article, "United Pipe & Supply found it could use its business intelligence software to maintain its supply lines by ordering only the exact items it needed at a given point in time."
Computerworld goes on to describe how United Pipe & Supply has transformed many aspects of its business operations using BI software. "The company's pretax profit margin increased from 1.5% in 2003 to 4.7% in 2005," the article states, "and in the past two years, its income before tax has risen from $2 million to $8.2 million." (Read the full article)
The Dreyfus Corp
"Testing a Campaign's Success"
In 2005, The Dreyfus Corp. ran a marketing campaign to sell a new mutual fund to existing customers, but the sales push wasn't overly successful. Determined to find out why, John Dryzga, associate director of database marketing, drilled through the data with Dreyfus' business intelligence tools and found that the campaign was a big success among customers who already owned another specific fund. According to the Computerworld article, this information led to a change in tactics: "Dryzga says, 'officials knew that 'the next time we did this type of mailing, we would only concentrate on customers who had this fund.' "
The article goes on to describe how "the narrower [marketing] campaign had a payback of 12 months, compared with four to five years for a broader one. Moreover, by selectively targeting recipients for a sales pitch, Dreyfus cut the cost of such campaigns by 50% compared with five years ago." (Read the full article)
Highmark Inc.
"Detecting a Web of Fraud"
In this BI success story, Computerworld describes how a band of chiropractors, with the help of insured "patients," bilked several insurance companies out of millions. Now these fraudsters are facing $7 million in fines and up to seven years' imprisonment – all because independent Blue Cross Blue Shield provider Highmark Inc. used a new business intelligence application to fight back.
Through the use of detailed BI analysis data and reports, Highmark identified suspicious treatment and billing patterns. The article details how the carrier then tipped off other insurance providers to the falsified claims and collectively filed charges against the chiropractors, one of whom will be sentenced this fall. (Read the full article)
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