KNOWLEDGE
FACTORYA
MEMBER OF THE
PRIMEDIA GROUP
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KNOWLEDGE FACTORY SA pars international markets in quality and depth of analytics solutions Over the past few years, South African businesses have begun embracing business intelligence and more specifically the analytical techniques behind these solutions. But similar to the common perception in the ICT industry as a whole, there’s been a feeling that the solutions available on a local basis are less sophisticated and aren’t as ‘leading edge’ as those deployed in international markets. On a recent trip to South Africa, jointly hosted by Knowledge Factory and SAS Institute, Boston-based Data Miners’ Principal, Michael Berry came out strongly against this perception. Berry stated that the analytics projects being undertaken by numerous local corporations are every bit as sophisticated and in some cases, more innovative than those he’s seen elsewhere in the world. “And the great news for South African companies is that one of the most widely accepted practises in this space internationally, namely the use of ‘geo-demographics’ in analytics, has more relevance to the South African market than what it has in the US and many European countries,” Berry continues. “In South Africa, far larger distinctions can be drawn between people in different stages of life and with different needs, desires and cultural backgrounds,” Berry says. This means that an increased number of options exist for marketers in the local market. Greater geographical and cultural diversity, whilst posing a significant challenge for mass marketing campaigns, provides a greater ability for the tailoring of offerings to a company’s specific target markets. However, only through having the requisite market data and undertaking an analytics or business intelligence project, can businesses begin exploiting this diversity. Berry says South Africa is also in a strong position in terms of the adoption and use of analytics in the daily running of businesses. “Add to this natural appetite for business intelligence, the strong competencies South African corporates have at their disposal through specialists like Knowledge Factory and the power of SAS Institute software, it’s no surprise that the country has a burgeoning market for analytics and business intelligence,” Berry enthuses. “Interestingly, analytics and business intelligence doesn’t hinge on computer technology competence as strongly as other business spaces that use technology do. |
Knowledge Factory’s successful approach to deriving business intelligence insights for its clients is through the use of its experienced analytics skills base which utilises robust data mining and statistical technologies from SAS Institute like SAS Enterprise Miner. “This practise allows the technology to serve the ends of the analytics expert, placing the value in the hands of the person that counts, namely the client,” he concludes. This is as a direct result of the SAS9 Business Intelligence and Analytical Intelligence technology platform design attributes which include lower total cost of ownership, usability, manageability and scalability. About Knowledge Factory About SAS SAS is the market leader in providing a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create true enterprise intelligence. SAS solutions are used at more than 40,000 sites - including 96 of the top 100 of the 2003 Fortune Global 500 - to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organisations forward. SAS is the only vendor that completely integrates leading data warehousing, analytics and traditional BI applications to create intelligence from massive amounts of data. For nearly three decades, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know®. For further information please contact: John Sikiotis Issued by: |
