SAS Extends Lead in Performance Management

At SAS Forum International, SAS executives provided overwhelming proof of the company’s status as the dominant provider of performance management solutions. The annual European conference of SAS users is taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, June 21-23.

"When we met for SAS Forum International in Copenhagen one year ago, we promised that SAS would become the foremost player and recognized leader in performance management," said Art Cooke, president of SAS International. "And in 12 short months, we’ve proven it."

The proof can be found in SAS’ growing roster of satisfied performance management customers. Today, more than 300 customers worldwide rely on SAS for performance management solutions, including Brigham and Women's Hospital, Progress Rail and the U.S. Coast Guard (all U.S.); Caisse Nationale d’Allocations Familiales (CNAF) (France), CTT Correios de Portugal, Fraport AG (Germany), Mobile TeleSystems (Russia), MTR Corporation (Hong Kong) and Regione del Veneto (Italy).

And the roster looks better every day. Since last fall’s introduction of SAS Strategic Performance Management 2.0 – the latest version of SAS’ core performance management solution that takes full advantage of the SAS Intelligence Platform – SAS has seen a significant increase in demand. Worldwide first quarter sales were up 20 percent over the same period in 2004, with major projects under way worldwide in industries ranging from healthcare and public institutions to banking and finance. It’s not just a matter of up-selling current SAS customers; SAS has enjoyed tremendous success selling SAS Strategic Performance Management to companies not already using our software elsewhere in their organizations.

What the analysts are saying
Industry analysts reinforce SAS’ assessment. "In our recent evaluation of corporate performance management vendors, SAS was ranked as outperforming the market," wrote Tim Jennings, research director for Butler Group, in a report titled Corporate Performance Management, a New Approach to Business Control and Planning. "SAS has been able to demonstrate its ability to bring robust, focused solutions to market, delivering a strong CPM solution that has both functional depth and breadth." SAS was awarded best-in-class capability in Planning, Monitoring, Reporting and Data Management, confirming Butler Group’s view that "the SAS®9 platform gives industry-leading power to fuel even the most ambitious corporate performance management strategies."

SAS is the one business intelligence provider offering an all-encompassing view of performance management – one that delivers key insights into every aspect of the enterprise, including customer intelligence, internal processes, financial performance and supplier intelligence. And when organizations go beyond business intelligence to combine performance management with SAS’ industry-leading predictive analytics software, executives not only can see what happened in the past and why, they can also use at-a-glance dashboards, filters and alerts to see key performance indicators (KPIs) of what’s happening right now and to predict the probability of future outcomes based on their decisions today.