CARY, N.C., Dec. 21, 2005--For the eighth year in a row, SAS, the leader in business intelligence, ranked at the top of the list in the annual DM Review Readership Awards. These prestigious awards are determined by DM Review's readers. SAS won in two main categories: Business Intelligence and Analytic Applications, Business Performance Management and Web Analytics.

"Once again we congratulate SAS for its outstanding reputation with our readers and for the high level of product and service excellence it provides to customers," said Mary Jo Nott, editor-in-chief of DM Review. "SAS business intelligence is well known among readers for integrating data from across an enterprise and delivering self-service reporting and analysis to everyone's fingertips."

"The demand for business intelligence is definitely on the rise all over the world, and the fact that DM Review readers chose SAS as the top vendor in both of these categories is evidence of our strong leadership in these areas," said Christina McKeon, BI marketing manager at SAS. "As always, we're honored to be continually recognized in this survey."

SAS also receives Readership Merit Award

This year DM Review created a new series of Readership Merit Awards to replace its former DM Review 100 list, and survey respondents also named SAS a recipient of this award for providing quality products and service in addition to the honors mentioned above. Readership Merit Awards go to vendors who received two or more votes of satisfactory or above in the readership survey.

For a complete listing of the Readership Award and Readership Merit Award winners, visit www.dmreview.com/awards/.

SAS differentiates itself from other conventional BI vendors in the industry by providing unmatched technology and expertise in advanced analytics, data management and tailored solutions for specific industries, such as banking, life sciences and others. SAS takes enterprises Beyond BI(TM) by integrating analytics that not only supply insight and hindsight in the form of historical reports, but predictive analytics that help predict outcomes and provide greater insight and foresight. With these capabilities, SAS offers users at all levels immediate access to cleansed and reliable data, through targeted user interfaces that match the skill level of the individual user. For more information, visit: http://www.sas.com/technologies/bi.

SAS(R) Performance Management takes industry-specific approaches supported by domain expertise and cross-functional intelligence solutions, and then delivers results through the SAS(R)9 Enterprise Intelligence Platform, which makes information a generally available resource and drives performance across the entire enterprise. To learn more, please visit: http://www.sas.com/solutions/pm.

About the DM Review 2005 Readership Awards

Each year, DM Review enlists a research firm to poll readers to determine the top companies serving the technology needs of the business intelligence community in specific market segments. This year, The Gantry Group, LLC, a Massachusetts-based strategic advisory and research firm, conducted an independent survey of DM Review readers from early May through mid-September 2005. The survey divided software solutions into nine categories and asked respondents to rate the vendors of those solutions based on the quality of the products in use in their organizations and their level of customer satisfaction. The ratings were based on a four-point scale from excellent to poor. The 2005 Readership Award winners are the leaders in their respective categories.

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 40,000 sites -- including 96 of the top 100 companies on the FORTUNE Global 500(R) -- to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organizations 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(R). Visit us at www.sas.com.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. (R) indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.

Copyright (C) 2005 SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.

SAS Institute Inc.
Editorial Contacts:
Marla Hudnell, 919-531-7423
Marla.Hudnell@sas.com