Vodafone Australia optimises marketing campaigns with SAS

Sydney & Auckland   (21 May 2008)  –  SAS, the leader in business intelligence, has announced the signing of an agreement with Vodafone Australia to provide the SAS Marketing Optimization solution.  Deployment of this system will enable the telecommunications company to enhance its marketing campaigns through the use of advanced real-time analytics. Vodafone claims a 17 per cent share of the total Australian mobile market and has more than three million subscribers connected to its GSM network; the geographic reach of which covers 93 per cent of the Australian population.

Vodafone regularly targets more than a million of its customers with direct mail campaigns but the largely manual processes previously involved were increasingly inadequate and led to the company’s search for an advanced and automated software solution.

Campaign analytics and intelligence manager for Vodafone Australia, Cahyadi Poernomo, explained, “The catalyst for our decision to switch to an intelligent technical solution was the length of time it took to manually process the information we needed.  As we grow in terms of the number of campaigns over time, and as the campaigns become more integrated, it became impracticable to do this within our current capabilities.  

“In addition, by implementing the tools provided by SAS we estimated that we could significantly improve our return on investment for marketing campaigns whilst increasing customer satisfaction by being able to eliminate uncoordinated or conflicting marketing communications.  We believe that Vodafone will be the first in the telecoms industry in Australia to take full advantage of these types of tools.” 

Vodafone counts the costs of its direct marketing campaigns in the many millions of dollars and Poernomo says the company is looking to reduce this outlay by as much as 30 per cent while still enjoying similar or better levels of return.

When asked why Vodafone had chosen SAS to provide the solution, Poernomo replied, “SAS fitted all of our selection criteria.  The tool itself had good capabilities and was the best fit in terms of our current structure and systems in place.  SAS also provides comprehensive 24 by 7 support, which, from our perspective, is fantastic.

He added, “One of the main benefits that SAS provided was its peoples’ knowledge and experience.  It was very advantageous for us to have people on board that are expert in implementing similar solutions around the world.”

In announcing the agreement, SAS Australia and New Zealand managing director Gordon Clubb, said, “We are naturally delighted that the local arm of the world’s biggest mobile telephone company chose SAS.  In an industry as fast moving as the telecommunications sector, where fierce competition and threatened margins are a constant challenge, there is no longer any room for marketing campaigns that are not underpinned by the single version of the truth that only state-of-the-art business intelligence can deliver. 

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