'Positive' rating for SAS in leading analyst firm's campaign management MarketScope

SAS, the leader in business intelligence, has announced that it received a "Positive" rating in Gartner's Campaign Management MarketScope, 1Q05i[i] research note published in April 2005. Of 24 vendors evaluated for the Gartner report, SAS was one of four rated "Positive".

Campaign management is just one component of SAS Marketing Automation 4, which helps companies improve marketing response rates and revenues by managing sophisticated, timely, personalised customer communication strategies. Built specifically to meet the needs of key members of the marketing process, SAS Marketing Automation is the only integrated, easy-to-use solution that delivers comprehensive data management, business intelligence and advanced customer analytics along with campaign management.

"We believe Gartner's positive rating of SAS Marketing Automation is recognition of SAS's market momentum," says Jim Davis, chief marketing officer at SAS.

"SAS looks at the marketing equation much more broadly than traditional campaign management and the high volume of SAS wins and successful customer implementations validates our vision in this space."

The SAS Customer Intelligence suite - which includes SAS Marketing Automation, SAS Marketing Optimisation, and SAS Interaction Management -- provides the most complete marketing solution available today and meets the needs and high ROI expectations of organisations.

SAS Customer Intelligence, built upon the open-standards-based SAS 9 platform, combines extensive best-in-class technology with deep industry and domain expertise to solve the myriad challenges facing chief marketing officers today. The solution can be integrated readily with an organisation's current infrastructure to add maximum value to existing investments.

Gartner's 2005 MarketScope for campaign management evaluates vendors on specific criteria including vision, viability and market commitment, product functionality, implementation, support, technology/architecture, and pricing and implementation costs.

Gartner considers a company receiving a "Positive" rating to have demonstrated strength in specific areas, but also to be largely opportunistic. The report says that existing customers of "Positive"-rated vendors should continue incremental investments, while potential customers should put this vendor on a short list of tactical alternatives.