SAS introduces its Business Analytics Framework

An evolution of the Enterprise Intelligence Platform is the new kid on the block

Johannesburg, South Africa  (29 Oct. 2009)  –  SAS Institute understands that modern businesses are facing a constantly changing marketplace, particularly from an economic perspective. To address these challenges SAS has evolved its Enterprise Intelligence Platform into a Business Analytics Framework (BAF) to meet the new and shifting needs of businesses.

"Making intelligent decisions in today's market means being able to harness the information contained in vast amounts of data, in order to solve complex and diverse business problems, anticipate and manage change and achieve sustainable growth through innovation. Addressing new challenges requires a new way of looking at business, which is where the SAS Business Analytics Framework (BAF) comes in," says Craig Stephens, SAS EIP Consultant

BAF is a flexible tool designed to cater for the changing business demands of tomorrow. Unlike its predecessor, BAF is not a monolithic solution, but rather a framework that allows businesses to choose the solutions and capabilities they need right now, and add onto this in the future, allowing them to achieve results quickly and grow the solution with the business.

"The BAF contains a number of modular components that can be implemented singularly or in conjunction with each other. The bottom layer addresses data integration, while layers slotting in on top of this look at analytics, reporting, and business solutions that incorporate the combined strengths of SAS software, professional services, training and ongoing support," adds Stephens.

The BAF works by integrating the following layers: data integration, master data management and data quality assurance. BAF is a result of SAS identifying that these applications are becoming increasingly important as data grow exponentially and globally. This means that organisations cannot afford to simply accumulate data any longer. There is a growing need to look at an intelligent strategy to make sense of data, and ensure that data are credible, accurate and believable.

Data integration is used to access needed data, validate data against business requirements, and transform data into a valuable resource for users who need it. The next layer forms the analytics layer which is part of a process that helps businesses answer business questions that occur on a daily basis. From these layers, businesses can further drill down into data to gain the benefits of true predictive analytics. Analytics that no longer looks back in hindsight but can actually predict ongoing trends and see the future of business trends and challenges.

Within the BAF, reporting is not a stand-alone activity, but part of a seamless approach towards creating and sharing intelligence, making BAF a solution to address every aspect of developing a successful business, which is completely flexible and will scale with the business as it grows. As the BAF is expanded to address more issues, like regulatory compliance, customer profitability and relationship pricing, performance measurement and reporting, the organisation will be able to take advantage of an even wider range of data integration, analytics and reporting capabilities.

As the new kid on the block the BAF is an impressive evolution of an already powerful analytics tool. It is a changing, flexible solution for a shifting business market and will help businesses move forward towards predictive analytics and gain the capability to plan for the future by making the right decisions today.

"Ultimately, while a business adds capabilities to solve more and more business problems, improving performance and evolving the business, the Business Analytics Framework will grow into a Business Analytics platform that is tailored to the specific needs of the business," ends Stephens.

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