Wells Fargo Chooses SAS Enterprise Miner Software for Target Marketing
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SAS Institute Inc., a market leader for analytic solutions, has announced sales of its data-mining product, Enterprise Miner software, to Wells Fargo & Company. Wells Fargo, the nation's tenth-largest bank holding company is using Enterprise Miner software to further hone its already successful target-marketing strategies.

In Enterprise Miner software, the Institute offers an automated analytic solution that quickly identifies hidden trends in data saving decision makers time and delivering ROI. Other companies that have selected SAS Institute's data-mining technology include major banks, telecommunications companies, retail stores and direct marketers. A number of Fortune 500 companies, especially banks, are evaluating the product.

"Data mining -- turning data into information -- will be a requirement across all industries that have the ability to capture data from their business," said Kamal Rajan, assistant vice president of customer information analysis in Wells Fargo's commercial banking division. "The financial industry is just coming of age with the use of data-mining techniques to increase profits. Within the next few years, if financial institutions are not applying these techniques across all of their portfolios, they will be left behind by those who are."

Rajan expects Enterprise Miner software to save Wells Fargo millions of dollars due to the speed and accuracy with which the product uncovers and presents hidden trends. Business analysts use Enterprise Miner software to run predictive models on commercial customer portfolios to identify the San Francisco-based bank's best customers as well as those who leave. Results are then used for targeted promotions. Analysts are building and testing different modeling techniques at record speed -- days as opposed to weeks. Plus, for the first time, they're able to visualize and compare different models' performance together on a single lift chart. "I feel that SAS Institute's Enterprise Miner software will do for statisticians what spreadsheet programs such as Excel have done for accountants," he said.

Companies deploying Enterprise Miner software include Ameritech Services, a telecommunications company based in Chicago and one of the world's 100-largest companies; San Francisco-based Bank of America, the fifth-largest U.S. bank and a world leader in financial services; GE Capital Retailer Financial Services, based in Stamford, Conn.; ICG Equipment Company, a telecommunications company based in Englewood, Colo.; Integrated Marketing Partners Group in Rochester, NY; Nordstrom Inc., a Seattle-based retailer; People's Bank of Bridgeport, Conn.; Royal Bank of Canada; Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada's fifth-largest bank; and U S West, a Denver-based telecommunications company.

Data mining uses advanced statistical-analysis tools and techniques to address specific business problems by uncovering hidden relationships in customer transactional, demographic and lifestyle data. The results of data mining activities can be applied to a number of customer relationship management (CRM) activities, including improving customer retention and loyalty, increasing customer acquisition, and identifying up-sell and cross-sell opportunities that increase profits and maximize customer lifetime value.

Available on the NT and UNIX platforms, Enterprise Miner software provides a complete solution for data mining. With its Process Flow Diagram, a drag-and-drop graphical user interface (GUI), Enterprise Miner software automates the entire data-mining process of sampling, exploring, modifying, modeling and assessing (SEMMA) customer data. This GUI provides the common ground for two diverse groups -- business analysts and quantitative professionals -- who collaborate for successful data mining.

SAS Institute's data-mining expertise is supported by more than two decades as a recognized leader in data-analysis R&D. SAS Institute consultants offer an integrated data-mining solution that builds on an end-to-end data-warehouse infrastructure. Consultants provide tools and software applications that incorporate the Institute's step-by-step SEMMA approach for understanding large quantities of corporate data.

The Institute markets packaged business solutions for vertical industry and departmental applications, as well as an integrated suite of software tools that allow companies to transform the wide variety of data within their organizations into information that business users and researchers need to make better decisions. SAS software and services are used at more than 31,000 business, government, and university sites in over 120 countries. Founded in 1976, SAS Institute is the world's largest privately held software company with annual revenue of $750 million.

Please visit SAS Institute's Web site: http://www.sas.com