[March 7, 2005]

Siebel Flies With Alaska Air

By David Sims, TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist

Siebel Systems, Inc. has announced that Alaska Airlines will use Siebel Business Analytics as part of its improving its customer service.

Siebel Business Analytics will be expected to enable Alaska's marketing professionals to better understand the airline's customer base. The Siebel implementation will strengthen Alaska's capacity to evaluate customer behavior, identify purchasing trends, and design promotions that best meet the needs of its customer base.

Alaska Airlines has been in operation for over 73 years, says Ann Ardizzone, Managing Director of Marketing Programs for Alaska. She noted that advanced business intelligence capabilities will enable the carrier to design services and programs that provide more marketable value.

Ardizzone said Alaska expects to work with Siebel to strengthen their position “as a technology leader in making flying as easy as possible." This reporter earnestly hopes it’s a smashing success and that such an attitude spills over to the rest of the entire airline industry.

Deployed throughout Alaska Airlines' marketing organization, the solution will be integrated with Alaska Airlines' internal customer management systems and also incorporate data from Sabre, the widely used electronic travel network. Among the expected benefits to marketing professionals are deeper customer insight and targeted, data-driven marketing programs, yielding higher success rates of mileage plan, hotel, car rental, and vacation promotions.

The airline is also hoping for better insight into customers and marketing program metrics to enable Alaska Airlines to drive improvements in cross-selling and up-selling.

Alaska Airlines uses a proprietary customer relationship management solution to manage its customer data.

Siebel Business Analytics solutions provide real-time and enterprise-wide insight. Used in over 20 industries and providing rapid deployment with low cost of ownership, Siebel Business Analytics applications are prebuilt enterprise solutions powered by the Siebel Business Analytics Platform, a family of next-generation BI platform products.

David Sims is contributing editor and CRM Alert columnist for TMCnet.