Business analytics firm SAS is acquiring Assetlink, a marketing resource management firm, giving its clients greater marketing tools
Assetlink brings workflow management across multiple channels to help marketers avoid potential bottlenecks.
With Assetlink, SAS helps manage and optimise marketing operations through more efficient asset management, increased measurement capabilities and improved financial reporting.
“This combination makes perfect sense for both partners — and, more importantly, for the marketers they serve,” commented David Raab, principal at Raab Associates. “It allows SAS to offer the full range of marketing planning and execution features that are part of high-end marketing automation suites.”
“SAS’ powerhouse analytics help companies identify areas to improve marketing, build stronger customer relationships and increase profitability. Bottlenecks in budgeting, planning and resource allocation can hinder effective marketing,” said Jim Davis, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at SAS. “Combining Assetlink’s marketing resource management capabilities with SAS’ leading customer intelligence solutions helps organisations identify what’s working and what needs improvement. Marketers can be more efficient, while delivering smarter campaigns on a larger scale than would otherwise be possible.”
“Data collected by marketing operations management solutions is a rich source of information,” added Chetan Saiy, CEO of Assetlink. “By applying powerful SAS Analytics to the data captured by Assetlink, CMOs and marketing professionals can discover how to get more out of their marketing resources and identify new opportunities from which to wring value.”
The acquisition positions SAS as a leader within integrated marketing management (IMM). First described by analyst firm Gartner, IMM refers to an increasingly prevalent strategy of integrating people, processes and technologies.
According to Gartner, by 2014, organisations that develop an integrated marketing strategy “will deliver a 50% higher ROMI [Return on Marketing Investment] than those that don’t.”
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