Surge in demand for software

Businesses search for new tools to handle crisis better

Looking to buy a condominium for 4-5 years, the managing director of business intelligence software firm SAS (Thailand), Taveesak Saengthong, quickly made up his mind after witnessing water sweeping through his house near Bang Bua Thong in Nonthaburi when the historic floods inflicted huge losses on businesses and individuals last year.

The case seems similar for his software firm's clients who, according to the SAS boss, are also hastening their software-purchase because of the recent flood crisis that had an unprecedented impact on their businesses and the Thai economy.

"Customers are dusting off their plans. They have realised the existing tools they have are not sufficient for meeting their management needs," said the SAS Software (Thailand) managing director during a interview with The Nation.

SAS, whose motto is "the power to know" is a leading provider of business analytics software and services and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence software market. The company announced a record global revenue of US$2.725 billion in 2011, marking a double-digit growth in its 36th profitable year of operations.

While on the surface, businesses were affected by the massive flood because of problems relating to logistics or due to supply chain disruption, but if one takes an overall view, the root cause was really the lack of preparedness as nobody had expected a crisis of this magnitude. Throughout the world, increasing uncertainties caused by more frequent natural disasters, as well as political and economic crises, have spiked up demand for business analytics solutions as organisations feel the heat to anticipate a situation and the ability to handle it effectively, said Taveesak.

"The most important thing is the ability to anticipate opportunities. We have been doing this [business] for 36 years. BI [business intelligence] is not just about bringing in data to analyse and make a report; it must empower actions," he said.

Taveesak cited the case of an SAS client in Japan who during the tsunami disaster last year used social media analytics for scanning and analysing consumer sentiment about brands and their expectations of the brands, and then came up with timely campaigns and actions that precisely hit the target groups, in a way to help win the hearts and minds of Japanese consumers at an optimum cost.

"Sentiment analysis [software] will no longer be 'nice to have', but in the future, it will become a must," said the SAS Thai boss.

Taveesak raised another case of a bank in Singapore that used SAS software to beat competition by enabling it to approve loan applications within 24 hours. With the ability to daily update the risk profiles of loan applicants, the software helps the bank to differentiate itself from competitors without bearing additional risks, he said.

The so-called "big-data" trend, triggered by fiercer competition in many industries and an increasing shift towards retail banking in the case of financial institutions, has also induced more demand for businesses intelligence software, as banks and companies are launching more frequently their marketing campaigns and are dealing with vastly more numbers of customers, said Taveesak.

In Thailand, the recent flood crisis also looks set to help accelerate the trend of electronic banking and mobile banking in Thailand because banks whose branches and ATM machines were inundated during the floods are weighing other alternatives that will still allow their customers to use their services, in addition to rebuilding or fixing these outlets. The Thai government could have used data management solutions for assisting in integrating and analysing flood-related databases and getting over the problem of aid packages not being fairly distributed to flood victims, during the recent floods, he said.

Taveesak said SAS has an edge over other business intelligence vendors because it is capable of offering "pre-defined" models for clients in different businesses and industries.

"Because we have been doing this for 36 years, we have what we call a "knowledge library" that enables our clients to choose [the right solutions for their companies], similar to when they are ordering a set menu at McDonald's," he said.

pichaya@nationgroup.com