SAS revenue jumps 5.2 percent to record $2.43 billion

Business analytics leaps 26 percent as organizations seek to gain an edge in a challenging economy

Cary, NC - 1 February 2011

SAS, the leader in business analytics, achieved record global revenue of US$2.43 billion in 2010, up 5.2 percent over 2009 results. In the business analytics category, revenue surged 26 percent.

In Belgium & Luxembourg, 2010 total software revenue was 4.4 percent more than in 2009. Software sales alone grew by 25 percent. In the Business Analytics category, revenue in Belux leaps 28 percent. SAS CEO Jim Goodnight attributed growth to the recognition that the current explosion of data can be analyzed to provide insights never before possible.

“Analytics is used in virtually every industry and branch of government,” Goodnight said. “The predictive power of analytics can make a difference by helping you see further into the distance so you can make adjustments faster and with more confidence. We’ve experienced 35 years of unbroken revenue growth and high customer loyalty because our customers get value from our software and trust the results.”

As is customary, SAS reinvested substantial revenue – 24 percent – back into research and development. SAS also grew staff by 2.4 percent.

“We started 2010 with a No. 1 US ranking on FORTUNE’s Best Companies to Work For list, and we’ve kicked off 2011 at No. 1 again,” Goodnight said. “These rankings show that we’re serious about helping employees balance work and personal lives so that they can focus on delivering the high-quality software and service our customers expect. Engaged, talented employees are vital to a knowledge-based company like SAS. They keep our offerings on the cutting edge.”

Around the world, SAS® Analytics give organizations a quantifiable edge. Some examples from Belgium & Luxembourg:

• Colruyt tailors its promotional folders to the personal preferences of 1.6 million customers. This approach saves them 665 million pages of paper and all related costs per year. Moreover, households only receive promotions related to their interests which stimulates more coupon use, and increases spending per capita.
  
  
• Federal Public Service Economy increased their level of service to customers thanks to a wider variety of statistical information on macroeconomic indicators and to the empowerment of the users who are now able to retrieve information on demand, without delay. They increased the efficiency of their internal organization thanks to faster collection of data, ICT rationalization, faster integration of new data and faster release of new indicators.
  
  
• KBC has chosen SAS® Risk Management for Banking and Insurance and SAS® Financial Management from the leader in business analytics software and services, to provide them with a central, group-wide risk reporting solution that will enable KBC to obtain a consistent and quick view of the overall risk exposures across risk types, departments and geographies. This new solution will enable KBC to swiftly implement any new and future reporting requirement, including Solvency II guidelines. All aspects of the group-wide risk reporting process will be covered including: data integration, data quality monitoring, reconciliation of finance and risk numbers, risk aggregation, management reporting on all risk types, free querying, and regulatory reporting (Solvency II). All this of course supported with extensive workflow capabilities.
  
  
• P&V Group will use SAS as their central solution offering one integrated architecture to comply with different regulatory requirements and cover the three pillars of Solvency II. They will be able to aggregate data from a vast amount of sources, manage the data quality and report on information in an auditable and structured way complying with IFRS, Solvency II and GAP regulations.
  
  
• Sanoma Magazines Belgium is the editor of 25 magazines (Humo, Libelle, Feeling, Flair…) and uses SAS to accurately forecast the circulation and distribution of their magazines to the different point-of-sales to make avoid shortage or waste.

Customers Turn To Analytics To Dig Out Of Challenging Times

In 2010, organizations around the world sought analytics to make relevant, timely business decisions. Analytics accounted for double-digit growth in nearly all industry solutions, including education, energy and utilities, financial services, government, health care and life sciences. Revenue from customer intelligence and risk and fraud management solutions saw growth rates in double digits – and in some cases triple digits – across most industries.

Other notable double-digit growth rates worldwide were in business intelligence, customer intelligence, data management, financial performance and strategy management, life sciences, merchandising, risk and fraud management, and supply chain solutions.

Global Results

The Americas accounted for 46 percent of total revenue; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) 42 percent; and Asia Pacific 12 percent. In developing markets, double-digit percentage gains were achieved in most of Asia and Latin America, and the Middle East.

Acquisitions Increase SAS analytic Footprint In Intelligence, Public Safety

SAS, already a player in the worldwide public security and safety markets, expanded its influence even further in June with the purchase of Glasgow-based Memex, a world leader in intelligence management solutions that help improve intelligence processes, enhance public safety, and prevent and deter crime, terrorism and other threats. The company has a strong presence in the law enforcement and homeland security markets.

A month later, SAS acquired Vision Systems & Technology Inc. (VSTI). Headquartered in Ellicott City, MD, VSTI is a professional services company that has been delivering advanced analytic solutions to the US intelligence community for over a decade.

SAS BeLux Ecosystem Stronger Than Even Before

To make sure our customers are successful and get the maximum out of their investments in SAS, we develop and maintain a strong and rich network or ‘ecosystem’ making sure our customers find the necessary SAS expertise and knowledge from multiple sources in the Belux market.

The SAS Alliance program establishes powerful relationships with leading business and technology organizations. We strive to combine SAS' analytical software expertise with our partners' high-level industry and domain knowledge in order to present a complete solution offering for our joint customers.

SAS believes that it is very important to share its years of experience, its solutions and technology with students and teachers. With our SAS Academic Alliances program we support and encourage the use of SAS software for educational and research purposes as well as for business purposes (internships, stages).

To meet the high market demand for SAS® knowledge and skilled people in the Belgian and Luxembourg market, SAS® introduced the "Summer of SAS" in 2007. This free one month training is for young graduated who want to prepare themselves for a job as a SAS consultant or expert. In 2010, more than 80 percent of the students found a job in less than 3 months after completing the training.

SAS expanded its strategic partnership with Accenture in early 2010 to create the Accenture SAS Analytics Group, designed to drive business analytics into organizations across the globe. Accenture, along with global partners such as Capgemini and Deloitte, have incorporated core elements of the SAS Business Analytics Framework into their recently launched analytic competency centers.

In addition, SAS continues to use its partnerships with leading technology vendors such as Teradata and HP to provide innovative analytic-driven solutions to its customers that address the increasing demand for in-database analytics and high-performance computing.

OUTLOOK

As 2011 gets under way, the uncertain economic landscape and exponential growth of digital data will be both a challenge and an opportunity for organizations. Industry-specific and cross-industry solutions built on the SAS Business Analytics Framework solve organizations’ toughest problems – from improving customer relations to reducing fraud and risk. SAS High-Performance Computing, introduced mid-2010 in banking and retail solutions, helps solve those problems in record time, in some cases in real time, by distributing analytic tasks across multiple processors.

“The long-term effects of the economic downturn still aren’t known,” said SAS Senior Vice President Jim Davis, “but I feel confident about the future based on our revenue results this year and conversations we've had with customers in every industry about improving their business processes with analytics.”

About SAS
SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions delivered within an integrated framework, SAS helps customers at more than 45,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®.

For more information contact:

SAS Institute nv
Gracy Poelman
Kasteel de Robiano
Hertenbergstraat 6
B - 3080 Tervuren
Tel.: +32 (0)2 766.07.52
Fax: +32 (0)2 766.07.77
E-mail: gracy.poelman@sbx.sas.com
www.sas.com/belux

Creative Strategies
Elke De Ridder
Koningin Astridlaan 49 bus 1
1780 Wemmel
Tel.: +32 (0)2 267.41.60
Fax: +32 (0)2 267.12.89
E-mail: ederidder@creative-strategies.eu.com

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