CARY, NC (Jan. 30, 2008) – At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jim Goodnight, CEO of business intelligence leader SAS, offered insight into the critical role of advanced analytics in predicting future trends.

Goodnight, whose company has had more than three decades of revenue growth and acclaim as a leading software provider and workplace, participated in a panel to discuss new forecasting approaches and tools that organizations should use when formulating their strategies. He joined Ian A. Goldin, Peter Schwartz, Angela Wilkinson and Paul L. Saffo. “Everyone is touched by analytics today,” Goodnight said, noting that forecasting has become more volatile and complex as volumes of data grow.

“Our ability to tackle forecasting problems has improved because of technological advances,” he continued. “The nature of forecasting and predictive modeling is more refined, and the use of forecasting, and advanced analytics in general, is pervasive.”

The agenda for the 2008 meeting was based on five conceptual pillars gleaned from a broad view of economic, political, societal and technological forces at work in the world. These pillars include: Competing While Collaborating, Addressing Economic Insecurity, Aligning Interests Across Divides, Exploring Nature’s New Frontiers, and Understanding Future Shifts. The event drew 2,500 contributors from 88 countries, including 27 heads of state and governmental leaders, as well as global business, social and economic leaders. Approximately 60 percent represent the 1,000 foremost companies in the world, crossing all economic sectors.

About the World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum, founded in 1971, is an independent, international organization incorporated as a Swiss not-for-profit foundation. According to the Forum’s Web site, the vision is threefold. “It aims to be: the foremost organization which builds and energizes leading global communities; the creative force shaping global, regional and industry strategies; the catalyst of choice for its communities when undertaking global initiatives to improve the state of the world.”

SAS
SAS è leader nel settore del software e dei servizi di business intelligence. Con oltre 44.000 installazioni in tutto il mondo, aiuta le aziende a migliorare le proprie prestazioni di business e/o incrementare la produttività analizzando enormi quantità di dati. L’utilizzo di SAS, da parte di aziende private e pubbliche, porta a un miglioramento del processo decisionale; relazioni più vantaggiose con clienti e fornitori; aderenza alle normative nazionali e internazionali, progressi nell’ambito del lancio di nuovi prodotti e campagne di marketing. SAS offre tecnologie di data integration, intelligence storage, advanced analytics e business intelligence, il tutto all’interno di una piattaforma completa di enterprise intelligence. Dal 1976, SAS è al servizio dei clienti di tutto il mondo fornendo THE POWER TO KNOW®. SAS è presente in Italia dal 1987 con direzione generale a Milano e uffici a Roma, Torino e Venezia-Mestre e conta 347 dipendenti.