SAS doubles down on partner strategy to supercharge future growth

The AI and analytics heavyweight is increasing the role of indirect channels to generate value

SAS, the leader in AI and analytics, is elevating partners in its company strategy to drive growth, enable innovation and empower customers. SAS has taken its partner program to the next level with game-changing updates that spell out success for customers and partners alike.

“Strategic partnerships are the key to adding value with our combined expertise and customer connections,” said Gavin Day, Executive Vice President in the Office of the CEO at SAS. “Our partners’ knowledge, skills and capabilities only enhance our world-class AI and analytics, helping us get results for our customers while we grow together.”

Maximizing data with AI

SAS collaborates with industry leaders on new solutions at the forefront of emerging technologies, including AI.

SAS^® Viya^® AI and decisioning capabilities are newly available in the Snowflake Data Cloud with Snowpark Container Services (private preview). This high-powered integration gives users access to the strengths of both partners without having to transfer data between platforms. Combining SAS’ leading AI and analytics platform with Snowflake’s secure and elastic processing engine produces quicker insights with less risk and maximized results across the analytics lifecycle.

SAS Health is a new cloud-native industry offering that includes SAS partner SingleStore. It utilizes SAS Viya, SAS’ powerful AI and analytics platform, to simplify health data management for faster analytic discovery using the power of AI. It provides an end-to-end enterprise solution for health data and analytics powered by a common health data model based on industry standards. The model will serve as a central location to connect health data with critical operational information to improve interoperability, accelerate time to insight and reduce total operating costs.

Intel and SAS continue to work together to deliver the world’s most advanced AI and analytics platform on Intel’s new 4th Generation Xeon processors. By integrating SAS analytics with Intel hardware and software, customers can use the unique features of the Xeon Processor Family to speed up performance and lower operational costs. Intel is also instrumental in supporting key initiatives and events, including the annual SAS Hackathon, SAS Innovate on Tour and SAS Explore. 

“These interactions with our customers give us valuable insight into how we can support them now and in the future,” said Teck Joo Goh, Senior Director of Global AI and Analytics Accounts at Intel. “Our decades-long partnership is proof of how working together makes great things happen for our customers and our businesses.” 

Highlighting customer experience with partners

SAS presented Linktera, a leading SAS solution provider in the Middle East, with its Distinguished Partner Award. This award was presented as part of the 2023 SAS Customer Recognition Awards at SAS Explore. Linktera has been adding value for its clients for over 12 years and heavily investing in finance, risk and analytics using SAS technologies. Apart from their day-to-day business in digital, banking and finance, Linktera has also focused on social good. Following a devastating earthquake in Turkey earlier this year, Linktera saw an urgent need for disaster coordination and response. The SAS partner used SAS Viya to develop a solution that streamlined decision making processes to allocate resources more efficiently and help those impacted by the tragedy. The solution uses open source tools to curate and combine data from social media and satellite imagery for an accurate status of affected areas, which is delivered to responders in real time. Linktera’s solution was also recognized as a winner in the 2023 SAS Hackathon alongside EPAM as a part of team Linktera4Good.

"Linktera and SAS have been partners for more than a decade, during which we have created a great ecosystem and witnessed remarkable growth, with our business expanding threefold in the last five years and now focusing on digital banking. When we realized the need for quick, efficient and intelligent disaster response coordination, we knew that SAS Viya was the answer,” said Taşkın Osman Aksoy, CEO of Linktera. “By harnessing the power of SAS analytics, we were able to do more than help customers meet their business needs – our efforts directly impacted our community for the better.” 

Scaling distribution

To grow their indirect channels business, SAS enlisted two of the world’s leading technology distributors: TD SYNNEX, for much of the Americas, Europe and Asia, and Carahsoft Technology Corp., The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider^®, for the U.S. public sector. Solution provider partners who resell SAS will benefit from the vertical expertise, regional presence and far-reaching networks that these distributors bring to the table. This is the first time that SAS has operated through a two-tier distribution model. The change will arm SAS solution providers with increased scale, access to new markets and additional complementary assets.

“TD SYNNEX is committed to uniting technology solutions that deliver business outcomes today and unlock growth for the future,” said Clay Davis, Vice President of Global Data, AI and IoT Solutions at TD SYNNEX. “With SAS as part of our portfolio, we’re making it easier for SAS partners to grow their business and leverage new AI and analytics capabilities to enhance customer data.”

Explore SAS Partners and stay up-to-date on the latest partner news, insights and developments.