Analyst report recognizes breadth and depth of SAS® business analytics software

1 October 2004 - IDC, a leading analyst firm, reports that SAS offers the broadest scope of any vendor in the growing business analytics (BA) software market. In its recent report* IDC notes that BA is becoming increasingly important as companies search for ways to get the most value out of existing technologies to answer critical business issues. SAS is the world's largest privately held enterprise business intelligence software company.

"In 2003, SAS led the way again in scope," states the IDC report. "In fact, in 2003, SAS ranked as a top 3 vendor in five of the nine segments of the BA market … indicating not only the breadth but also the depth of its solutions. By contrast, no other vendor ranked as a top 3 vendor in more than two market segments."

"With business analytics, companies can go beyond what traditional business intelligence can deliver - which is a summary of what's happened - by making predictions that can position them for success," said Jim Davis, SAS' senior vice president and chief marketing officer. "Those needing a truly comprehensive BI system recognise the value of business analytics in being able to address corporate objectives and stay ahead of the competition. The BI market is evolving and users want to get the most out of all the technologies available, and business analytics is integral in making that happen."

Using 2003 data, IDC's business analytics competitive market map evaluates BA vendors on four key areas: size, scope, momentum, and reliance. In the report, IDC encourages companies to look for a software solution that is able to provide a complete business analytics infrastructure, from traditional BI to advanced analytics capabilities such as scenario analysis, what-if analysis and optimisation. Based on those areas, IDC recognizes SAS as having the broadest scope in the BA market while maintaining positive momentum (i.e., revenue growth). Scope is defined as a metric that accounts for a vendor's breadth of BA offerings, as well as depth in the nine market segments, which range from data integration and data warehouse management to end-user BI tools and enterprise applications.

"In essence, this IDC report is a useful guide for end users to determine which vendors they should evaluate for their business analytics needs," added Davis. "With 28 years of analytics experience, SAS is a growing, stable company that offers the depth and breadth of analytics capabilities that our customers need to move beyond traditional BI. Our software gives users the power to gain greater insight into their data and decrease their time to intelligence in making crucial management decisions. This ultimately translates into reduced cost and increased profit. Clearly, SAS is a key contender for organizations choosing a BA vendor."

Business analytics allow organisations to go beyond traditional BI applications by providing an integrated, enterprise-wide view of information and a higher level of predictive insights and optimisation. The key challenge is to deliver this knowledge through solutions that are pertinent to specific business processes, enabling decision makers to achieve greater return on investments and organisational efficiencies.

IDC's definition of BA aligns well with SAS' expanded definition of performance management, which builds on the SAS Intelligence Platform, a broad set of integrated software for unmatched data integration, easy-to-use business reporting and unparalleled analytics. SAS is the only performance management vendor that offers integrated solutions spanning finance, human and IT capital, customer and supplier relationship management, economic and process intelligence, through to strategy and profitability analysis. The Intelligence Platform is part of SAS®9, the most significant development in SAS technology in the last 25 years. Offering a range of applications - from intelligence storage to analytics, data integration, and query and reporting capabilities - the SAS Intelligence Platform helps companies gain unique and strategic insights into their customers, suppliers and internal infrastructure to drive value and gain a competitive advantage.

More information about the SAS®9 Intelligence Platform is available here: www.sas.com/technologies/architecture/index.html. Information about SAS' performance management solutions is available here:
www.sas.com/solutions/pm/index.html. You can also read more on IDC's assessment of SAS at this link: www.sas.com/news/analysts/by_firm_idc.html.

About SAS
SAS is the market leader in providing a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create true enterprise intelligence. SAS solutions are used at more than 40,000 sites - including 96 of the top 100 companies on the 2003 FORTUNE Global 500® - to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organisations forward. SAS is the only vendor that completely integrates leading data warehousing, analytics and traditional BI applications to create intelligence from massive amounts of data. For nearly three decades, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know^®.

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