Intelligently understanding customers
eBucks is one of South Africa's most popular and successful member rewards programmes, and therefore by its very nature is customer focused. So when the organisation wanted to know more about and better understand its customers, the FirstRand Group company turned to business intelligence software provider, SAS and its Marketing Automation solution.
In his recent presentation to the more than 200 delegates at the SAS Forum, Warren Murray, head of Business Decision Support at eBucks, highlighted some of the highs and lows the company has had with the SAS business intelligence solution. With a highly active member base of more than 1.4 million individuals, eBucks is not only one of the largest rewards programmes of its type in the country, it is also recognised as the rewards programme that consumers get the most value out of1.
Effective communication
"eBucks has vast amounts of data, which presents us with the challenge of how to most effectively communicate relevant information to our members," said Murray to the SAS Forum audience. "Our requirement was for a solution that would not only give us greater understanding of and insights into our members, but would also provide maximum marketing ROI. The system also needed to be robust and be able to deliver multiple campaigns quickly."
SAS Marketing Automation gives eBucks a leading integrated solution combining comprehensive data management and campaign management. Over and above the SAS solution, eBucks developed its own front-end marketing analysis and reporting application - the first of its kind in the country. This provides the ability to achieve and maintain an integrated view of its members, whilst providing the ability to manage customer lifecycles, improve the effectiveness of campaigns and better understand not only the member, but also the results of marketing activities.
Tracking and virtualisation
Murray advised the delegates that the eBucks solution was deployed in a phased approach. Phase One, which has been successfully implemented to date, included the ability to track what happened on campaigns, track what actions were taken by eBucks members, what revenue was produced by the members, as well as track the actual uptake of products marketed. Phase Two will involve applying knowledge gained from the processes in Phase One, as well as the virtualisation of the server environment.
Virtualisation of the data environment is the way forward. Not only does it deliver a host of benefits to the business such as server consolidation, physical infrastructure cost reduction, increased application availability and improved business continuity it also dramatically decreases CO2 emissions, which is important to eBucks as the world's first carbon neutral rewards programme2.
Teething troubles
While the eBucks solution has to date been a successful implementation, Murray also mentioned that the project has not been without its hurdles.
Apart from infrastructure problems and significant downtime, the idea of bespoke marketing automation is something of unchartered territory in South Africa, and there is a lack of skill in the field. However, despite these issues the venture is moving forward.
Benefits
Financial benefits of the SAS solution include savings on unnecessary communications, resource savings due to the automated system, as well as the fact that relevant communications more effectively drive the earn and spend of eBucks. On the non-financial side, the solution provides benefits such as enhanced member experience and time saving on campaign execution.
"eBucks as a business relies on relevant and accurate Business Intelligence in order to optimise the interactions between ourselves and our members as well as our partners. This is made possible by using our SAS solutions," Murray concluded.
1. Value in Rewards Programme survey, Razor's Edge
2. According to The Carbon Standard
