SAS(R) Solution Adapters for SAP Reduce Time to Business Intelligence

    CARY, N.C., Sept. 23, 2002 -- Market-leading business intelligence
software vendor SAS today announced the availability of the first three new
SAS(R) Solution Adapters for SAP. The SAS Financial Management Adapter for SAP
R/3, SAS Human Capital Management Adapter for SAP R/3 and SAS IT Management
Adapter for SAP automate the extraction, transformation and loading of data
needed for business intelligence from SAP systems into SAS solutions for
financial, human capital management and IT management. Features include quick-
start ETL (data extraction, transformation and loading) templates that
predefine and automatically extract the specific SAP R/3 and SAP Business
Warehouse data required for analysis.
    "The market for packaged analytical applications is driven primarily by
three demands from organizations: shorter implementation timescales than
traditional projects, lowered costs compared with building in-house solutions
and the implementation of domain best practices. The introduction of SAS
Solution Adaptors for SAP follows the trend of BI vendors towards offering
packaged functionality as part of an overall analytical application offering",
says Helena Schwenk, BI Analyst at analyst and consulting company, Ovum.
    "Most companies still spend 80 percent of the time given to business
intelligence projects in trying to gather the data required for analysis from
key operational and transactional systems such as SAP R/3 and SAP's Business
Warehouse, leaving only 20 percent for the analysis that is critical in
directing business performance," says Allan Russell, senior vice president of
strategy for SAS International. "The new solution adapters reverse that
balance by automating the ETL process, reducing ETL implementation from months
to days and giving business analysts more time to focus on gaining a clearer
picture of performance."
    SAS is the only vendor of business intelligence software able to provide
technology and solutions that deliver proven value across the whole process of
generating business intelligence - from extraction to storage, to query and
reporting to advanced analytics - as well as domain expertise that is
delivered through SAS methodologies, models and packaged industry solutions.
    Portuguese UMTS operator Oni Way is one of the first customers to license
the SAS Financial Management Adapter, along with SAS Financial Management for
consolidation and reporting. "In our very competitive market, our management
needs to stay continously on top of our financial performance. We wanted a
solution that would help us to deliver financial analysis in a easy way to
every department that needed it - without financial analysts having to spend
days preparing ad-hoc reports requested by managers," says Oni Way Chief
Financial Officer Romao Eusebio. "We also wanted to minimise our investment
risk by choosing a solution that would fit in with our existing data warehouse
architecture and that could be up and running fast. The SAS Financial
Management Adapter means that we've been able, very quickly, to set-up an
interactive environment that allows our financial analysts to focus on the
real financial issues without wasting time getting to the information."
    As the leader in business intelligence and analytics, SAS continues to
strengthen its R&D and sales and marketing efforts around the development and
sale of analytical applications. SAS' strategy of focusing on analytical
applications is in line with industry analysts who predict an increased demand
in this area.  SAS demonstrated a 34% increase in revenue growth in 2001 for
analytical applications, including SAS solutions for financial management,
human capital management and IT management.  Revenue from analytical
applications in 2001 was US$159.1 million.
    The SAS Solution Adapters for SAP bundle new templates that allow business
analysts to get straight to the required data for analysis among thousands of
R/3 and BW tables with SAS' existing and highly successful data extraction
tool, SAS/ACCESS Interface for SAP R/3 and SAS/ACCESS Interface for SAP BW.
    Furthermore, with SAS' award winning data warehousing technology, other
data sources can be accessed to enhance the SAS(R) Solution Adapters for SAP
R/3, allowing analysts to work with one tool to quickly pull data together
needed for analysis.
    SAS is a member of SAP AG's Complementary Software Partner Program. SAS'
drag-and-drop Windows interface, Enterprise Guide(R), is certified by SAP.
    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 38,000 sites - including 98 of the top 100
businesses on the Fortune 500 - 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 more
than 25 years, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to
Know(R). Visit us at http://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) 2002 SAS Institute
Inc. Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.


SOURCE SAS Institute Inc.
Web Site: http://www.sas.com