SAS, the world's largest privately held software company in the business intelligence space is contemplating to expand its India operations and strengthen its ties with leading IT firms.

Announcing this the company’s Chief Executive Officer, James Goodnight said, “We intend to build on the complementary strengths of Indian companies and SAS' global leadership, to deliver industry-specific capabilities and solutions. These partnerships will enable organizations to improve efficiencies and increase competitiveness in today's knowledge economy, both in India and abroad.”
SAS focuses on R&D and Industry Intelligence Solutions development. The R&D center at Pune is said to be the largest one outside of the U.S. According to a Frost & Sullivan report, SAS India leads the business intelligence market with a market share of 22.5 percent and top-of-mind recall at 70 percent.

Commenting on SAS’ plans for India, Goodnight said that the company was optimistic about achieving a triple-digit growth rate from its India operations this year. “We use every opportunity to learn from our customers, to understand their businesses, and to solicit feedback. We've used this outside-in approach for nearly 30 years. And in that time, we've grown every single year, achieving $1.53 billion in revenue in 2004. Our customer retention rate is rising year-on-year, more than revenue, underlining our success,” he said.

The company would attempt to help organizations create business value on top of their existing IT infrastructure, be in customer retention initiatives in the telecom sector, risk management and customer intelligence in the ever-competitive financial services arena or clinical trials in the burgeoning and innovative pharmaceutical industry.

On solution offering, SAS India took to building a network of partnerships over the past four years, he said and recalled the company's consulting alliances with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Infotech, MindTree Consulting and Satyam and hardware alliance partners such as Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems and IBM.