Discovering Hidden Aftermarket Profit Streams

As product margins dwindle under intense global competition, leading-edge organizations are recognizing the untapped gold mine of aftermarket service. Companies can harvest more profits through improved forecasting, suspect claim analysis and reduced inventories while maintaining and even improving customer satisfaction levels.

The challenge lies in connecting the multitude of business processes and disparate operating systems that make up the service chain. To meet this need, SAS has launched SAS Service Intelligence, an integrated family of solutions that monitors, predicts and optimizes a company's entire service chain.

The suite uses the power of the popular SAS Warranty Analysis solution by combining it with the forecasting strength of SAS Service Parts Optimization and SAS Service Operations Optimization to harvest the wealth of data in previously disconnected business units and processes. In addition, the SAS solution helps companies gain competitive advantage as they improve quality and performance throughout the service chain, and even feeding timely quality reporting back into design and manufacturing.
 
Post-sale service a top priority
"Post-sales service ranks among the top three priorities for chief financial officers worldwide, and 68 percent of companies now have a vice president or higher overseeing service performance," says Mark Vigoroso, Chief Research Officer and Senior Vice President, Service Chain Management, Aberdeen Group. "As best-in-class companies scale their technology investments, the key thing to keep in mind is to partner with a technology provider that not only provides a point solution to meet their most immediate need, but also provides a flexible platform to build on in the future."

SAS® Warranty Analysis in action …
For Shanghai GM, a US$1.5 billion joint venture between General Motors and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., implementing the SAS Warranty Analysis solution two years ago marked the starting point for the company to gain a better understanding of its warranty expenses and its aftermarket service operation. In fact, Shanghai GM served as one of the inspirations for creating the SAS Service Intelligence suite. "We are making constant progress, and after six months of using SAS, we are still discovering new ways of improving our warranty analysis process," said Nanxiang Gao, Warranty Business Representative and Field Performance Engineer within Shanghai GM's Quality Department. "This also has an impact on the efficiency of our after-sales campaigns because now we know exactly how much money is available for after sales."

The new service intelligence suite helps companies view aftermarket operations holistically to better retain satisfied customers and build brand image. Companies using the suite gain competitive advantage by recognizing the service chain as one of the keys to developing an ongoing reputation of excellence.