February 28, 2000

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SAS Tackles E-Intelligence
Suite includes data-analysis tool, technology for managing customer, supplier relationships

By Rick Whiting

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AS Institute Inc. is getting into the E-intelligence game this week, debuting a suite that includes a clickstream data-analysis tool and technology that analyzes E-commerce data for managing customer and supplier relationships. The SAS Solution for E-intelligence suite is the vendor's first set of products specifically designed for analyzing E-commerce data.

SAS's experience and product depth give it an edge over its rivals, says Peter Urban, a senior analyst with AMR Research. "These guys have a lot of experience in data mining," he says. "They've been at it longer than anybody."

The flagship of the suite, tentatively called E-Discovery, will provide a way to integrate Web-site data with customer and sales data from multiple sources, such as company transaction systems. The data can then be analyzed for customer and supplier profiling and segmentation.

For example, the software can be used to identify a company's most profitable customers or its most costly suppliers. The system will use SAS's Enterprise Miner data mining technology and data warehouse administration software. The suite's WebHound analysis tool analyzes large volumes of clickstream data and provides reports about visitors' activity at Web sites.

E-commerce companies can use the product's findings to improve Web-site design and increase the number of visitors who make a purchase.

The software will include report templates and provide ad hoc query capabilities. SAS says the product has more-sophisticated summarization capabilities than competing products from Accrue Software, Net Perceptions, and WebTrends.

The E-intelligence suite also includes IT Service Vision, software that collects, warehouses, and analyzes operational data from business E-commerce systems--including Web servers, networks, and phone systems--and provides IT managers with reports on system usage. That can help IT executives manage their E-commerce systems and plan for future capacity requirements.

Urban says the suite will be attractive to IT managers and E-business executives because SAS is offering a line of integrated analysis tools, rather than just single products.

The new products are available immediately. Pricing for E-Discovery starts at $200,000; pricing for WebHound and IT Service Vision each begins at $80,000.

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