SAS is a leading player in the performance management market based on its combination of technical depth and industry expertise. This is the conclusion of a recent research note from European analyst company Butler Group.

According to the analyst firm, SAS has a well-rounded vision for performance management, combining operational capabilities to clean, improve and integrate data, and to report and visualize performance.

Complementing this strategy are forecasting capabilities and a wealth of tools for linking performance management processes to operational systems and predictive analytics to provide consistent insight required for process improvement. Thus, SAS addresses what Butler Group identifies as missing in many performance management implementations: bidirectional links between operational reporting, business objectives and plans, and initiatives that aim to model, predict and improve business process performance.

"One of the most impressive solutions in this space comes from SAS," says Tim Jennings, Research Director at Butler Group. Besides validating SAS' strategy for performance management, Butler also gives the leading BI vendor credit for its level of expertise, replicated across all industry sectors it covers.

SAS launched its comprehensive portfolio of solutions as SAS Performance Management in May at SAS Forum International, the company's annual customer event, in Geneva. The solutions suite is based on the SAS®9 Enterprise Intelligence Platform.

Improving corporate performance
"Performance management is no longer driven solely by Finance. Successful companies are beginning to use BI across the enterprise, including departments such as Marketing, IT and HR. We advise our customers to not be fooled by flashy dashboards with limited capabilities offered by some of our competitors. Only SAS solutions address technology issues within these departments and spanning the enterprise – enabling alignment around its corporate strategy," says Chris Sporleder, Director of Solution Development at SAS International, based in Heidelberg, Germany.

According to SAS, organizations evolve through distinct phases of performance management maturity. "What SAS is now being recognized for is that we provide a clear road map showing our customers how they can transition from merely reporting financial performance to the highest maturity level of actually improving corporate performance," Sporleder explains. Only when organizations are able to draw conclusions from the software results and use this intelligence to adjust strategies and plans will they reap the full benefits of their performance management solutions, he adds.

The market for performance management
According to a poll of roughly 750 customers conducted at SAS Forum International, more than 55 percent of SAS' customers and prospects already have implemented a performance management initiative. While Finance still drives the initiative in 43 percent of the cases, about one-third of those polled said that other departments, such as IT and Marketing, were responsible for introducing performance management.

According to another soon-to-be-released industry analyst report, the market for performance management and financial analytic applications in Western Europe is growing roughly 12 percent per year. The same report also places SAS in the leadership category and predicts it will be one of the two top vendors in the future.

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