Storage vendor EMC Corp. has allied with SAS Institute Inc., a maker of data analysis software, to create and market CRM (customer relationship management) tools, the companies announced Wednesday in a joint statement.
The two companies will exchange engineering talent through their respective collaboration programs. SAS will join EMC's E-Infostructure Development program, while EMC becomes a SAS Technology Partner, said Rick Lacroix, an EMC spokesman.
Typically, SAS software is used in data warehousing applications, and the data is stored on EMC systems, Lacroix said. The companies will continue to sell and service their individual products, but will work together to make those products into CRM data analysis and storage applications and hardware which work better together and can be marketed jointly.
"If there's a prospect looking for a SAS-EMC solution, he'll know that it's been pretested," said Lacroix. "Anyone that wants to know more about their customers' buying patters, their trends, to better market their products... they would want this. The best example of that would be a large retailer.