‘Positive’ rating for SAS in leading analyst firm’s campaign management MarketScope

SAS® Marketing Automation 4 rated ‘Positive’

CARY, N.C. (May 11, 2005) - SAS, the leader in business intelligence, today announced that it received a “Positive” rating in Gartner Inc.’s Campaign Management MarketScope, 1Q05 research note published in April 2005. Of 24 vendors evaluated for the Gartner report, SAS was one of four rated “Positive.”

Campaign management is just one component of SAS® Marketing Automation 4, which helps companies improve marketing response rates and revenues by managing sophisticated, timely, personalized customer communication strategies. Built specifically to meet the needs of key members of the marketing process, SAS Marketing Automation is the only integrated, easy-to-use solution that delivers comprehensive data management, business intelligence and advanced customer analytics along with campaign management.

“We believe Gartner’s positive rating of SAS Marketing Automation is recognition of SAS’ market momentum,” said Jim Davis, chief marketing officer at SAS. “SAS looks at the marketing equation much more broadly than traditional campaign management and the high volume of SAS wins and successful customer implementations validates our vision in this space.”

The SAS Customer Intelligence suite - which includes SAS Marketing Automation, SAS Marketing Optimization, and SAS Interaction Management -- provides the most complete marketing solution available today and meets the needs and high ROI expectations of organizations. SAS Customer Intelligence, built upon the open-standards-based SAS®9 platform, combines extensive best-in-class technology with deep industry and domain expertise to solve the myriad challenges facing chief marketing officers today. The solution can be integrated readily with an organizations current infrastructure to add maximum value to existing investments. SAS Customer Intelligence also integrates with SAS solutions for compliance, risk management, performance management and other vital corporate functions.

Companies using SAS Customer Intelligence include Barclays UK, Fingerhut, ING Direct, Telia Mobile Denmark, MLB Advanced Media, ScotiaBank, Staples and Williams-Sonoma, as well as many other leading communications, financial services and retail companies.

The SAS Customer Intelligence solution incorporates a wide range of capabilities, including the ability to:

• easily design and execute multistage, multichannel marketing communications
• track individual-level behavior and deliver personalized messages at the most opportune time in a customer relationship
• mathematically optimize contact policies and communication plans, and identify the best marketing activities in which to invest
• drive profitable loyalty and retention programs
• apply SAS analytics to improve results at every step of the marketing process
• leverage SAS high performance data storage that is designed for marketing use

Gartner’s 2005 MarketScope for campaign management evaluates vendors on specific criteria including vision, viability and market commitment, product functionality, implementation, support, technology/architecture, and pricing and implementation costs.

Gartner considers a company receiving a “Positive” rating to have demonstrated strength in specific areas, but also to be largely opportunistic. The report says that existing customers of “Positive”-rated vendors should continue incremental investments, while potential customers should put this vendor on a short list of tactical alternatives.

MarketScope disclaimer
The MarketScope is copyrighted 28 April 2005 by Gartner Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Beyond Business Intelligence

SAS differentiates itself from other conventional BI vendors in the industry with unmatched technology and expertise in advanced analytics, data management and tailored solutions for specific industries such as banking or life sciences. SAS takes enterprises Beyond BITM by integrating analytics that not only provide limited insight and hindsight in the form of historical reports, but predictive analytics that help predict outcomes and allow clearer foresight. With these capabilities, SAS offers users at any level immediate access to cleansed and reliable data, through targeted user interfaces that match the skill level of the individual user.

The announcement came at the 30th annual SAS Users Group International (SUGI) conference. More than 3,000 SAS users from around the world attended this year’s SUGI in Philadelphia.

About SAS

SAS is the market leader in providing a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create true enterprise intelligence. SAS solutions are used at more than 40,000 sites -- including 96 of the top 100 companies on the FORTUNE Global 500® -- to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organizations forward. SAS is the only vendor that completely integrates leading data warehousing, analytics and traditional BI applications to create intelligence from massive amounts of data. For nearly three decades, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know®. Visit us at www.sas.com.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.
Copyright © 2005 SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2005 SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.