Rene van der Laan celebrated his 20th anniversary in the enterprise software business in 2017. Although he can be considered a software veteran, he is still not done learning, thinking and definitely not done talking. Rene closely follows the ever-evolving world of marketing, customer experience and analytics. In his international role at SAS Institute he evangelises the Customer Intelligence topic - in his presentations he does not shy away from statements like: "without analytics, marketing departments lose their right of existence", "most companies underestimate the value of the customer experience" and he challenges organisations that often have no clue who their customers really are and don't know which direction the organisation should take with their customer journeys. The bold statements are based on the many conversations Rene has with marketing, analytics, digital and customer experience professionals as well as with their respective leadership. SAS' software solutions can help organisations to rise to their challenges, with a joint roll-up-your-sleeves mentality to deliver the ultimate experience their customers deserve - while keeping the organisation's objectives in mind. In his spare time, he also does not just shout from the sidelines, but during the weekends he leads many hockey matches to sporting success or he coaches one of the kids to victory. If he is not doing that, you will probably see him working on his handicap on the golf course.
We've been saying that the customer is queen or king for quite some time now. And in the coming year, that will be truer than ever. The customer determines where he or she finds information and which channel and which supplier gets the sale. And there is an abundance of
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