Sydney, Australia  (May. 23, 2007) – SAS, the leader in business intelligence, today announced product and partner initiatives emphasizing its commitment to small to medium businesses (SMB). In addition to expanding its channel partner program internationally for value-added resellers (VARs), systems integrators and independent software vendors interested in selling SAS® software, the company also introduced new product bundles for channel partners that focus on SMBs. A new online Demo Center will further support SAS partners and resellers during the sales cycle.

“SAS has made significant progress since launching its channel program only last year,” said Stephen Graham, IDC Group Vice President for Global Software Business Strategies. “In this short time, the company has made several investments that are important to demonstrate its commitment and longer term perspective to partners.”

Added Dr. James H. Goodnight, CEO of SAS: “Our partnerships have a big impact on our business. We value the knowledge, domain expertise and service they deliver to customers. We’ve had positive results, with new resellers and new customers, since unveiling the program.”

Gordon Clubb, Managing Director of SAS Institute Australia and New Zealand, confirmed that the initiative will also apply in this region, saying, “I’m very excited by this new program and we are moving quickly to implement it in full. This includes setting up a whole new operation, with its head reporting directly to myself.

“We are already in discussion with our existing implementation partners and several prospective new ones and the reaction we are getting is very positive. The program includes product bundling, pricing and reseller support specifically designed for the smaller end of the market.

Gordon Clubb predicted that the new initiative will also accelerate the take-up of SAS products by users of competitive Business Intelligence systems, saying, “The SAS Enterprise Business Intelligence Platform really is the only fully comprehensive BI suite on the market and we are increasingly seeing users of other systems come to us to round out their BI and Performance Management structures.

“With the facilities of the new program to help us, we will capitalise on this trend by encouraging resellers to come with us for the tools they can’t currently provide at a best of breed level – Advanced Analytics and Data Integration, for example, where we outsell the competition hands down.”

Countries participating in the first phase of this launch, being rolled out now through the third quarter of 2007, include Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, South Africa, Russia, Japan, China, Australia and India. SAS has signed more than 60 top-level industry VARs in the Americas – a rapidly increasing number. Internationally, more than a dozen SAS resellers have signed on, among them Keyrus and Umanis (France), Morse (UK), Prowerks (Canada), BPS and Octoplus (South Africa), and DiSo (Switzerland). SAS projects more than 150 resellers worldwide by year-end.

After launching its reseller program in the Americas last year to drive BI sales opportunities, specifically for businesses with revenue of $1 billion U.S. or less, SAS has taken further steps to address the SMB space with specially priced bundles based on the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform. Nine different bundles, customised specifically for small to midsize businesses, include SAS data integration, business intelligence and analytics software. “The new pricing bundles offer mid-market organisations the full breadth of SAS analytics capabilities to a wider market. The SAS reseller program is already adding value to our marketing and sales strategy and management,” said David Septoff, CEO of Zencos Consulting in Durham, NC.”

“As SAS resellers, our global channel partners can offer their customers the most comprehensive business intelligence software on the market, including a ‘one stop shop’ for software and services,” said Miles Mahoney, Vice President of SAS’ Global Alliances and Channels Group. “We are ensuring that each country has the necessary internal resources and support to help their resellers be successful. This includes appropriately priced products as well as field marketing, pre- and post-sales, service and engineering to support the entire product lifecycle management for the SMB market.”

SAS is further supporting partners with a new Partner Demo Center, an on-demand hardware and software environment to showcase SAS via the Internet. Available in June, the Demo Center, run by the SAS Enterprise Excellence Center (EEC), offers sales support by proving SAS' use in enterprise settings. SAS partners can request a SAS software demonstration when they need to demo an enterprise-class, fault-tolerant environment that extends beyond the laptop.

SAS’ global reseller program will continue to emphasize the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform, which includes data integration, intelligence storage, business intelligence and analytics. In addition to establishing a country channel manager, each country will leverage SAS’ global partner development team, internal channel sales teams and system engineers, as well as needed local partner and program resources.

More information about SAS’ partner programs is at http://www.sas.com/partners/overview/index.html.
 

About SAS

SAS is the leader in business intelligence and analytical software and services. Customers at 43,000 sites use SAS software to improve performance through insight from data, resulting in faster, more accurate business decisions; more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; compliance with governmental regulations; research breakthroughs; and better products and processes. Only SAS offers leading data integration, storage, analytics and business intelligence applications within a comprehensive enterprise intelligence platform. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know®