Milano, 29 giugno 2007– SAS is distinguished by independent analyst firm Yphise as the best software among competitors in an in-depth assessment report titled “Strategic Performance Management.” The Yphise AWARD goes to SAS Strategic Performance Management as best in comparison with Cognos, Business Objects, Hyperion/Oracle and others after evaluating the capacity of products to meet the expected return on investment.

“With SAS Strategic Performance Management, organizations are improving business performance in ways that positively impact the bottom line,” said Gary Cokins, Product Marketing Manager at SAS. “Leveraging SAS insights, these organizations can more effectively align resources with corporate strategy and can more naturally meet the changing demands of stakeholders.”

"SAS Strategic Performance Management provides the best coverage of our list of requirements and stands out in all four assessment dimensions," said Yphise Analyst Laetitia Bardoul from Yphise Paris labs. “This highlights its maturity and suitability for investing in this market segment. The vendor provides a single, comprehensive solution to define, communicate and monitor strategies, which can be financial or operational ones. The solution includes all the capabilities required for managing the strategies according to corporate or operational objectives.”

The Yphise reference list of requirements includes more than 160 technical or functional assessment items. The assessment confirmed that SAS Strategic Performance Management provides an easy-to-use, flexible interface for defining overall strategy. The qualification of objectives and performance indicators are entirely customizable. SAS Strategic Performance Management demonstrates usability strengths. The solution can complement finance-oriented solutions, including SAS Financial Management and SAS Activity-Based Management.

SAS provides the world’s broadest, deepest range of offerings for performance management. Its performance management capabilities bring context and direction to business intelligence initiatives and support a continuous process for improvement.

About Yphise

Yphise identifies and certifies the software products that allow large companies to increase the value of their information systems while optimizing the costs and managing the risks. Yphise covers all areas of interest in order to develop, operate and secure the applications to compete. Yphise has assessed 150 software products each year since 1985. Each assessment is ISO 9001:2000-certified in order to guarantee independence and to focus on key issues for large companies. Yphise distributes more than 8000 comparative assessment reports each year all over the world. Yphise has unparalleled experience in the recognition of winning strategies in software vendor claims. Thousands of investment decisions made by large companies have been based on Yphise independent research.