SAS, Amdocs Partner to Integrate Customer Management for Telco

To combat the difficulties many communication service providers (CSPs) face when trying to connect operational and analytic systems, SAS and Amdocs (NYSE: DOX), the leading provider of software and services for integrated customer management, have joined forces. This new partnership will give CSPs access to Amdocs’ expertise in billing, ordering and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and SAS’ leadership in business intelligenceand marketing automation.

Together, the two companies will enable CSPs to track and analyze valuable customer data and present the resulting intelligence dynamically via operational support systems. The information will provide insight into such areas as billing, call center activities and customer orders.

"Amdocs and SAS have formulated a compelling vision for decision-centric business intelligence in telecommunications," says Henry Morris, Group Vice President and GM for Integration, Development, and Application Strategies at IDC. "The synergy in this combination comes from bringing together SAS' predictive analytics and profitability software with Amdocs' telecommunications industry expertise and proven operational applications. The result promises to bring intelligence to the point of a decision, a key for optimizing business operations."

Benefits of the SAS and Amdocs partnership
SAS and Amdocs will help CSPs realize a vision for integrated customer management (ICM) – an approach to building stronger, more profitable customer relationships – by aligning corporate resources to deliver maximum value.

With SAS and Amdocs solutions, companies will experience:

• Advanced customer segmentation.
• Rapid deployment of one-to-one marketing campaigns.
• Improved product life-cycle management.
• Reduced operating costs.
• Enhanced customer loyalty and lifetime value.

Best in class
Through a suite of joint solutions, Amdocs and SAS will provide mutual customers with a combination of best-in-class analytic software, business consulting and implementation services, which allows them to unlock valuable intelligence from operational systems.

Companies can then "close the loop" by delivering this intelligence, including demand forecasting, pricing optimization and customer segmentation, to support customer-facing business processes like marketing, sales and customer service. Organizations that adopt this integrated customer management approach will enjoy longer, more profitable customer relationships, as well as process improvements that reduce cost and improves overall operational agility.

Available immediately, the first offering from Amdocs and SAS is the Customer Profitability and Segmentation solution. This solution allows CSPs to understand the costs associated with doing business with their customers. It enables them to gain vital insight into their customers’ behavioral drivers and make business decisions on the basis of that knowledge to maximize customer profitability and create a highly personalized customer experience.

"This alliance is about CSPs placing their customer at the core of their business," says Michael Matthews, chief marketing officer at Amdocs. "With today’s commoditization of voice services, the business imperative faced by both fixed-line and wireless operators is to generate profit through value-added services. Our partnership with SAS enables CSPs to align resources to better understand customers, act on that insight in a timely and relevant way and execute an effective integrated customer management strategy. We are pleased to work with SAS, the market leader in marketing and analytics, in enabling CSPs to generate and grow profitable customer relationships."

"CSPs cannot risk waiting for their systems provider to figure out business intelligence. That’s why the combined strength of Amdocs and SAS is so compelling," says Jim Davis, chief marketing officer at SAS. "Only SAS and Amdocs can deliver a comprehensive solution for CSPs to align their business around maximizing customer lifetime value. The capabilities of our companies are highly complementary, and SAS is particularly eager to leverage Amdocs’ thought leadership and robust consulting capabilities. Together we will help CSPs optimize their marketing spend, increase subscribers, maximize customer profitability and grow their bottom line."