SAS’ Magnificent Seven: New versions of seven SAS® solutions power the intelligent enterprise

-- Through advanced data management and analytics, solutions provide organizations with intelligence, competitive advantage --

CARY, N.C. (Dec. 10, 2001) – SAS Institute, the leader in business intelligence, today introduced new versions of seven SAS solutions – offerings for strategic performance management, enterprise marketing automation, supplier relationship management, financial planning and analysis, human capital management, and e-information management. These new solutions, built on SAS’ renowned Intelligence Architecture, help power the intelligent enterprise. They represent the latest examples of SAS’ 25-year commitment to benefit customers through innovative research and development.

Intelligence is the key

In today’s uncertain economy, companies must focus scarce resources – in every corner of their organizations – on strategies and tactics that will result in success. A key challenge is distilling huge volumes of customer, supplier and operational data from disparate computer systems spread around the globe into an accurate and intelligent “big-picture” perspective. Companies rely on this intelligence to implement winning strategies that accelerate speed to market, deepen relationships with customers and suppliers, manage risk, reduce costs and boost revenue.

“SAS Intelligence is not simply a marketing catch phrase designed to dress up our software in new clothes. It is the tangible, measurable benefit of doing business with SAS – the reason our customers choose us over our competitors,” said Jim Goodnight, SAS’ president and CEO. “Our new product offerings, built on SAS’ leading analytic and data warehousing technologies, clearly demonstrate our continued commitment to innovation, and to providing the intelligence our customers need to survive and thrive.”

By deriving intelligence from existing operational data and systems, an organization can also achieve sustainable competitive advantage. An intelligent organization is better able to predict how future economic and market changes will affect business – and quickly adapt to those new conditions, regardless of economic uncertainties. This reduces the need for guesswork and hunches, cutting down on costly false starts.

SAS innovation continues – seven new solution updates

As a stable business partner to more than 37,000 customer sites in 111 countries, SAS remains committed to meeting its customers’ changing needs. To this end, SAS reinvests almost a third of its annual revenues in research and development. This unwavering commitment to customers is one reason SAS boasts a 98 percent customer renewal rate. And the fruits of this research and development are clearly seen in the seven new versions of SAS software solutions delivered today.

“These seven new releases demonstrate SAS’ continued commitment to invest in the R&D needed to enhance their suite of analytic applications,” said Henry Morris, vice president for applications and information access at IDC. “These applications are impressive both for their breadth of business process coverage and their depth, leveraging the powerful business intelligence tools for which SAS is best known.” In its report, “Information Access Tools Market Forecast and Analysis: 2001-2005,” IDC recognizes SAS as the worldwide revenue leader for business intelligence tools based on 2000 revenues from software for data mining, multidimensional analysis, end user query/reporting, EIS, and packaged data marts.

The seven new versions of SAS solutions are: