Is the Honeymoon Over?

Far from it. Find out why customers are sweet on the marriage of SAS and Marketmax. by Lori Schafer, Marketmax

In an acquisition employees leave, customer relations suffer and thought leadership gets booted out the door. Right?

Wrong – at least in regard to SAS’ acquisition of Marketmax, the leading provider of advanced retail planning and merchandise intelligence software. In the year since the merger, the Marketmax team remains intact, relationships have flourished and employees remain energetic and motivated – a true partnership has been born.

But don’t just take my word for it. Obviously, as CEO of Marketmax, I had a lot invested in making this union work. But no less invested were the customers who knew they’d be affected by the marriage of these two companies.

Some SAS customers did not know of Marketmax’s industry expertise. Some Marketmax customers had not recognized the power of SAS analytics. And others were generally wary, knowing from experience that acquisitions can bring unwelcome changes.

"The merger could have been like a monster swallowing a minnow," joked Stan Tusman, executive vice president for Bakers Footwear. "But it wasn’t. Maybe it was more like the minnow swallowing the monster." If anything, he said, Bakers’ relationship with Marketmax has strengthened. "And SAS has continued to treat me as an individual and is true to my needs."

Bakers Footwear was a Marketmax customer before the merger, and Tusman was comfortable and confident in Marketmax’s retail expertise. Fortunately, he was also comfortable with SAS, having worked with SAS in a previous job. "I had a very positive feeling," Tusman said. "SAS was great with numbers. Marketmax had the retail experience. Now we have intelligence with processes. In fact, there are a lot of new things SAS can add to this process that Lori Schafer started. It’s exceptional."

Cathy Ferrier, trading director of UK-based Poundland, agrees that "the two companies together can be stronger than either one alone." Already a Marketmax customer, Ferrier said Poundland welcomed SAS to the team. She expected that the corporate marriage would bring additional resources to the region to assist in implementation and follow-up support for Europe’s leading one-price retailer.

The acquisition has meant "outstanding" things for The Home Depot, says Mark Healy, senior director of marketing operations. Because The Home Depot was already a customer of both companies, Healy said he knew that "SAS would be putting horsepower behind the analytics of Marketmax."

Healy said his only worry about the acquisition was that he might not be able to maintain the strong relationship he had built with Marketmax execs. But in reality, he said, now he’s working closely with execs from SAS as well. "And they’re not trying to sell me a one-off product; they are interested in how we can co-develop the software that’s going to handle our business needs."

Gar Gunter, CIO of Luxottica Retail, parent company of LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Watch Station and Watch World, said he is also pleased with what he sees as a successful merger. Gunter admitted that, upon learning of the acquisition, he was apprehensive – wondering if the same quality resources would be dedicated to his company, or if SAS would "gobble up" Marketmax. But now Gunter said he interacts with the same people, receiving the same personalized service today as he did a year ago.

And Gunter said he expects that relationship to continue into the future: "As we extend Marketmax into other divisions, into other lines of businesses and to other parts of the globe, we will leverage the investment in the Marketmax technology."

And Marketmax plans to be right there, ready to help in more regions of the world.

What began in the United States and the UK is now expanding into other new markets. We’re reaching out to retailers in Canada, Latin America and are now seeing strong potential in Asia, specifically Japan and Australia. The expansion is the logical growth of this unique union – one that combines Marketmax’s unparalleled expertise in the retail industry with SAS’ robust set of retail business intelligence offerings.

So, retailers, wherever you are in the world, we have a solution for you.