HONG KONG, PRC, Feb. 2, 2006 -- SAS was ranked as the leader in business intelligence in CIO Insight's 2005 Vendor Value Survey, where 884 IT executives were asked whether their top vendors are delivering the value and reliability they expect.

Overall the survey reported that IT executives were happier with their vendors during 2005, with 18 vendors, including SAS, receiving higher scores than in the previous year. SAS received an overall rating of 67.7 percent, up 3.2 percentage points from the 2004 survey.

In the category of Business Intelligence, "SAS is the clear leader," reported CIO Insight. "SAS is the eighth-ranked company overall for solving business problems. Hyperion and Cognos fall between 55 percent and 60 percent in every rating category, while Cognos ranks in the bottom quartile in every category."

"We are very pleased to see that customers highly rate SAS' capability and reliability to deliver value to their business, enabling them to make faster and more accurate decisions to solve business problems. In Hong Kong and China, SAS continues to lead the way in the business intelligence market as our customers derive benefit from the strength of our Enterprise Intelligence Platform and our domain expertise," said Dawn Kung, Regional Director, Greater China, SAS Institute Limited.

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, manufacturing and retail. 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, please visit: http://www.sas.com/technologies/bi

CIO Insight's 2005 Vendor Value Survey measured how U.S.-based IT executives generally perceive the value of their vendors' product and service offerings, and those executives' overall satisfaction with the support these vendors provide. To read more about the survey, visit: http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,1902378,00.asp