SAS Global Forum, ORLANDO, FLA (April 17, 2007) – SAS, the leader in business intelligence, annually recognizes customers who demonstrate productivity gains, cost or time savings, or achievement of business goals through the use of software. This year, SAS Enterprise Intelligence Awards were presented to Whirlpool Corporation and JPMorgan Chase at SAS Global Forum (formerly known as SAS Users Group International) in Orlando, Fla.

"We’ve always prided ourselves on operational excellence and in training our more than 1,500 Six Sigma Black Belts to use the latest techniques for moving our company ahead," said John Kerr, Whirlpool Corporation’s General Manager of Global Quality and Operational Excellence. "Our approach to improving quality, reducing warranty claims and finding root cause for those claims is no different. With SAS, Whirlpool is able to determine the root causes of warranty claims and satisfy customers more quickly."

Whirlpool chose SAS Warranty Analysis, SAS Text Miner and SAS Enterprise BI Server solutions because SAS understood the detailed statistical requirements of a competitive quality control program. SAS supports Whirlpool globally in local languages – important for a company whose appliances are sold in nearly every country around the world.

Winning the award for the commercial sector, JPMorgan Chase uses SAS Enterprise BI Server along with Futrix for risk reporting and management across all consumer and card risk lines of business. The firm needed to find a web-based deliverable solution that was easy-to-use, easy-to-implement, flexible and that could leverage existing data. In addition, non-programmers needed to understand and use the system.

With SAS, intelligence is now available to a broad audience in seconds rather than hours, days, or weeks. By providing searchable information, a range of decision makers at JPMorgan Chase are able to better understand different business dynamics, build strategy plans and provide insight and feedback on a daily basis. The upgraded environment was tied directly to several consumer and card risk initiatives which expect to realize a substantial savings with the improved SAS analytics.

"SAS enables JPMorgan Chase to reshape the way we look at the automobile loan business, allowing for more loan approval with lower losses, higher profitability and the ability to enter new market segments – basically an overall, enterprisewide improvement in risk management," Steve Gladysz, First Vice President and Consumer Risk Modeling Senior Manager at JPMorgan Chase. "Our divisional success is spreading within the company where other groups are looking to benefit from the technology that a strategic SAS BI platform and Futrix offering provide."

Today’s announcement came at SAS Global Forum, an annual conference attended by more than 3,500 SAS users from around the world.

About Whirlpool Corporation
Whirlpool Corporation is the world’s leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, with annual sales of approximately $18 billion, more than 73,000 employees, and more than 70 manufacturing and technology research centers around the world. The company markets Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Brastem, Bauknecht and other major brand names to consumers in nearly every country around the world. Additional information about the company can be found at http://www.whirlpoolcorp.com.

About JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $1.4 trillion and operations in more than 50 countries. The firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers, small business and commercial banking, financial transaction processing, asset and wealth management, and private equity. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, JPMorgan Chase serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients under its JPMorgan and Chase brands. Information about the firm is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.