SAS Strengthens Assault on BI Market

A company can make or break its future based upon its ability to transform reams of raw data into meaningful information for strategic decision making. Gleaning real business intelligence(BI) is the key to success in today’s global marketplace.

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With nine out of 10 executives from the largest U.S. companies saying they need stronger BI capabilities to grow successfully (see Feb. 2005 survey by Accenture), accessible, easy-to-use BI is not an option; it’s a necessity.

That’s why SAS is shipping to users worldwide a newly enhanced version of the SAS Enterprise BI Server, a major component of the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform.

What no other vendor can offer
With these enhancements, SAS sets itself apart: No other BI provider delivers online analytical processing (OLAP) storage and mapping capabilities integrated with a BI tool offering. SAS Enterprise BI Server is the industry’s most comprehensive offering, complete with easy point-and-click reports. It is light years ahead of the "drill, sort, filter and rank" offerings that most BI vendors call "analytics."

"We investigated six platforms, including Business Objects, Information Builders and Cognos, before selecting SAS Enterprise BI Server. No other vendor offered cutting-edge analytics and easy-to-use BI reporting in a single integrated platform," says Jody Porrazzo, director of econometric risk strategy for APEX Management Group.

"SAS brings BI to the masses with simplified user interfaces, so now everyone at every level of an organization can use this information to solve challenges quickly and easily,” says Dr. Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS. “In addition, our BI offering is built to support IT’s need to manage and maintain data and applications efficiently."

Executives see BI as crucial competitive advantage
According to a new study by Babson College, business intelligence capabilities and analytic prowess will play crucial roles in the most competitive sectors of the global economy (see related story).

"We have reached a critical juncture in the history of global competition," says Tom Davenport, the president’s distinguished professor in Babson’s IT Management Division. "After years of fitful progress, leading firms have begun basing their competitive strategies on the sophisticated analysis of business data."

The industry welcomes SAS Business Intelligence for integration, ease-of-use
A recent survey by global technology consulting firm Accenture highlights growing discontent among senior U.S. executives with their business intelligence initiatives.* More than 90 percent of the 150 senior executives surveyed across Fortune 1000 firms believe they need to significantly strengthen their analytic and BI capabilities to drive business growth in the coming year. SAS customers are doing just that:

• Briggs & Stratton

Briggs & Stratton, the world’s largest manufacturer of air-cooled gasoline engines, is implementing the SAS Enterprise BI Server, putting critical information in the hands of users throughout the organization.

• OSI Pharmaceuticals

OSI Pharmaceuticals, a leading biotechnology company, will use the SAS Enterprise BI Server to prepare detailed clinical reports and other patient data presentations for doctors and scientists .

• Tekelec

Tekelec, a leading developer of telecommunications products, has selected the SAS Enterprise BI Server to provide strategic reporting capabilities to executives, analysts and users throughout the company.

Better decisions faster
SAS Enterprise BI Server delivers reports on time, on demand and on target, reducing the time spent looking for answers and making more time for driving decisions and results.

"All too often, users spend too much time trying to access data in different places and formats," says Cindi Howson, president of ASK, a BI consultancy. "Of the major BI vendors, SAS was the first Web-based tool to allow users to create a dashboard-style report that can seamlessly pull data from multiple data sources, whether relational, OLAP or stored processes. Multiple data sources can also be defined at the metadata or Information Map level, providing reusability and control when these multiple data sources need to be accessed on a recurring basis."

"The SAS Enterprise BI Server is SAS’ foray into mainstream business intelligence. I was impressed by both its power and ease of use," continues Howson. "SAS has done well to analyze the needs of different user types and focus on the distinct needs of casual users and business analysts.

SAS announced additional developments related to the SAS Enterprise BI Server:

• SAS OLAP Server and new OLAP clients at no extra cost. By including the OLAP server and storage, users can create cubes and view multidimensional data within the end-user report environment.
  
  
• Geographic visualization. SAS and ESRI Corp. have integrated the SAS Enterprise BI Server with ESRI’s ArcGIS server, delivering BI tools integrated with geographic visualization.
  
  
• Enterprise job scheduler. SAS is offering an integrated version of Platform Computing’s JobScheduler for use with SAS Enterprise BI Server. This enterprise job scheduler automates the execution of the entire project flow, from data integration through reporting and analytics