SAS elected to Executive Committee of Java Community Process (JCP) program

-- SAS continues to participate in ongoing support of open standards ---

Milano, (Nov. 15, 2005) – SAS, the leader in business intelligence, announced today that it has been elected to the JCP Executive Committee for Java Standard/Enterprise Edition (SE/EE) in the 2005 JCP EC Elections. The Java Community Process is an open and inclusive organization holding the responsibility for the development of Java technology.

SAS is the newest elected member to the SE/EE Executive Committee, along with re-elected members BEA Systems and SAP AG. SAS will serve on the SE/EE EC for a three-year term and will be represented by Rich Main, director of Java development environments at SAS. The SE/EE EC is the group of JCP members guiding the advancement of enterprise Java technology by approving the passage of specifications through key points on the JCP and reconciling discrepancies between specifications and their associated test suites. SAS is the only pure-play business intelligence vendor on this committee.

SAS has been a long-time advocate of open standards and designs that address multiplatform environments. SAS’ support of open standards ensures its customers have the greatest flexibility to deploy applications in the environment that best meets their unique organizational needs. SAS is already active in many related standards organizations and consortiums, including the Eclipse Foundation, XML/A Council, Global Grid Forum, Object Management Group and the Data Mining Group.

“SAS is pleased to be elected to the Executive Committee seat of the Java Community Process, and we will continue to support the rapid evolution and openness of Java technology,” said Keith Collins, senior vice president and chief technology officer at SAS. “For years, SAS has been actively involved in promoting open standards. This commitment, combined with our expertise in enterprise business intelligence and analytical software, will ensure that users across the spectrum can take full advantage of the power of SAS® software for their applications and provide a broader, faster and simpler range of solutions than ever before.”

JCP EC members make decisions related to Java technology advancements and standards. Their specific responsibilities include reviewing, approving and voting on all technologies developed through the JCP called Java Specification Requests or JSRs Public Review; approving Final Specifications; reviewing TCK appeals; approving Maintenance revisions; and providing overall guidance to the JCP Program Management Office (PMO).

For more information about the 2005 JCP EC elections, which were conducted and overseen by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, please visit http://www.jcpelection2005.org/jcp/ratification_results.

About the Java Community Process
Since its introduction in 1998 as the open, inclusive process to develop and revise Java technology specifications, reference implementations and technology compatibility kits, the Java Community Process (JCP) program has fostered the evolution of the Java platform in cooperation with the international Java developer community. The JCP has more than 900 company and individual participants. More than 280 Java technology specifications are in development in the JCP program, out of which 45 percent are in the final stages. For more information on the JCP program, please visit: http://www.jcp.org.