The £6.2 billion merger between
car breakdown and insurance group the AA and
Saga, which provides holidays and financial services to the
over-50s market, is expected to launch a massive integration
project between the two companies’ data systems.
Insiders said the merged group would be able to take advantage
of Saga’s sophisticated IT systems to cross sell between the two
groups’ members.
In 2003, Saga began using predictive marketing techniques on its
direct marketing campaigns. This allowed Saga to increase its
revenue by more than £1m and achieve cost savings. This was
accomplished by enabling the company to conduct smaller, more
targeted campaigns against its database of more than two million
customers.
Saga said IT was part of the appeal of the merger. “We have
taken a really close look and concluded that that there are
significant advantages in combining Saga and the AA’s experience,
expertise, systems and negotiating power, while maintaining their
separate and very distinct brands and personalities,” said Saga CEO
Andrew Goodsell.
In 2005, the
AA successfully migrated its database of 24 million customers,
representing several terabytes of data, onto an
SAS 9 business intelligence platform in six months. The
migration involved moving 18 IT systems, including an SAP
enterprise resource planning system and fleet management and IT
management systems. The
AA demerged
from utility firm Centrica in 2004.
AA calls up IBM for new infrastructure >>
The AA >>
Saga >>
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