"The BI market is transforming from a niche, departmental technology market into an enterprise wide space, alongside ERP and other pillars of an enterprise business software strategy." - Bill Hoggarth, SAS Institute

It's SAS Institute's debut

…as BI channel shows signs of maturity.

Business intelligence (BI) solutions vendor, SAS Institute's strong showing in the product quality, channel strategy and partner programmes, and technical support and warranty criteria have helped the vendor become the 2006 Channel Champion in the BI category.

The category has been reintroduced this year as the channel continues to mature and show wide acceptance of BI solutions. For SAS Institute, this award will definitely boost its efforts to get more channel savvy.

SAS scored an overall average of 5.00 out of a possible 6.00 to scoop the award, while its closest rival Business Objects, Cognos, Sagent and Sybase all failed to garner enough votes to meet the minimum cut off point of 10 votes.

Bill Hoggarth, MD at SAS Institute SA, says the focus this year has been not to view the market as one for tools, but for total business solutions powered by BI, thereby offering ample opportunities to the channel to introduce its own unique value add around the software that is the heart of SAS' offering.

Amid this focus, says Hoggarth, specialization in given industry vertical domains or horizontal solution areas are trends that have emerged this year.

However, Hoggarth points out that neither the BI market itself nor the channel have reached maturity in SA and this leaves room for more business opportunities for channel partners. "The BI market is transforming from a niche, departmental technology market into an enterprise wide space, alongside ERP and other pillars of an enterprise business software strategy," he says.

As a result of this transformation, Hoggarth says SAS has been pushing for technology certification, implementation methodology and business domain to its channel partners.

SAS received high average ratings of 5.11 for product quality, 5.00 for channel strategy and partner programme, and 5.66 out of a possible 6.00 for technical support. However, the vendor scored slightly lower ratings of 4.44 for value for money and 4.67 for communication and information.

Hoggarth says that although the scores are slightly lower than those in the other three criteria and judging from the feed back, SAS will be engaging with its channel partners to understand where, how and across which communication channels it can improve.

He attributes the high overall score of 5.00 to SAS Institute's proven track record of delivering the promised business value of BI, its quality software and the confidence of its extensive customer base.

Next year, channel partners can expect better partner management and a enhanced tiered level of support and engagement.