SAS Delivers Supply Chain Intelligence

New Solution Suite and Consulting Practice Address Key Supply Chain Needs by Leveraging Company's Extensive Industry Experience and Installed Customer Base

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, Feb. 10, 2003 -- SAS, the leader in business intelligence, unveiled today at Logicon 2003 a new suite of solutions that solve critical supply chain problems.

Responding to customer requests for help in maximizing efficiency and profit in their supply chains, SAS(R) Supply Chain Intelligence enables organizations to drive revenue and reduce costs by anticipating customer demand, improving procurement strategies and identifying actions that achieve targeted customer and quality service levels.

Alcon is the world's leading eye care company and has been dedicated to the ophthalmic industry for more than 50 years. To help ensure the highest customer service levels for its Custom Pak(R) and Consumables products, Alcon's Houston, Texas manufacturing plant has developed a SAS-based forecasting solution that has reduced back orders, saved staff time and optimized inventory levels. "SAS is the linchpin of our supply chain management strategy," said Gary Keathley, Custom Pak(R) materials manager. "SAS brings integrity to the whole process. Whether we're negotiating with suppliers over price or working with customers on delivery, SAS delivers essential time and cost saving efficiencies."

SAS also announced a new SAS Supply Chain Analytics Consulting Group, responsible for helping customers rapidly deploy the new offerings and develop best practices to address analytical issues. In addition, the company introduced new executives charged with expanding SAS' market share. Mike Haydock is vice president of supply chain intelligence, and Dennie Norman is principal marketing strategist.

SAS' supply chain intelligence initiative leverages the company's nearly 27 years of analytical and business intelligence experience. SAS analytic software is already used by hundreds of companies in a variety of industries for supplier relationship management, supply chain costing, quality control, warranty analysis and demand forecasting. The new solutions and services, which draw and expand on that experience, can be rapidly implemented and used in conjunction with existing supply chain management (SCM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to drive profitability.

"Automating and capturing supply chain transactions is only one requirement in the complex task of maximizing profitability in the supply chain. Enterprises also need accurate analytical insight into their supplier relationships, customer demand, spend patterns, and finance, as well as into their manufacturing and engineering processes," said Bob Moran, vice president, Enterprise Business Applications and Analytics at the Aberdeen Group. "SAS continues to excel in these analytical areas, applying its extensive supply chain experience, commitment, and resources as well as knowledge derived from its continual interaction with its customer base."

"Increasingly, customers are asking us to address the shortcomings of enterprise resource planning and supply chain management systems," said Jim Davis, SAS' senior vice president and chief marketing officer. "To solve their business challenges, SAS has developed an offering that combines award-winning technology with premier consulting services. SAS Supply Chain Intelligence enables organizations to generate meaningful insights, deliver them to decision makers at the right time, and take the actions necessary to enable performance improvements."

A foundation for supply chain success

SAS Supply Chain Intelligence is based on the SAS Intelligence Architecture. Including data access, warehousing, cleansing and data mining, this foundation allows customers to generate intelligence from their existing transactional SCM and ERP systems. SAS Supply Chain Intelligence is comprised of four solutions, two of which are new to the market. Customers can deploy all or use them individually to solve their specific supply chain problems. SAS Supply Chain Intelligence includes:

-- SAS Supplier Relationship Management (SRM): Addresses incomplete spending analysis which, according to the Aberdeen Group, costs businesses $260 billion a year in missed savings opportunities. Available today, SAS SRM addresses this issue by delivering supplier intelligence through a Web-enabled environment to all levels within the purchasing organization. SAS provides robust and versatile tools that facilitate substantial returns through the three main procurement areas: strategy alignment/scorecarding, opportunity exploration, and detailed analysis/decision support. For more information, see http://www.sas.com/solutions/srm/index.html.

-- SAS Value Chain Analytics: Delivers financial intelligence enabling fact-based decisions that reduce costs and improve profitability, both internally and across the consumer packaged goods and retail value chain. It provides a common platform for internal departments and/or external trading partners to objectively examine the mutual costs attributed to moving products through distribution systems from post-production to the final consumer. SAS Value Chain Analytics is available immediately. For more information, see http://www.sas.com/solutions/vca/index.html.

-- SAS Demand Intelligence: Forecasts customer demand patterns and provides a competitive advantage by allowing companies to profitably shape demand through pricing and promotions, while simultaneously ensuring high customer service levels. The highly accurate demand forecasts in SAS Demand Intelligence optimize promotions, pricing and production plans. And its holistic view of the influences and immediate effects of consumer demand allows enterprises to understand and anticipate customer demand. As a result, companies can employ market-driven planning to create a unified strategy that optimally serves customers while maximizing profits. SAS Demand Intelligence is available on a limited basis today with general availability expected in the fourth quarter of 2003. For more information, see http://www.sas.com/industry/retail/demand.html.

-- SAS Process Intelligence: Maximizes value creation in manufacturing and engineering operations, driving problem solving, improving product quality and yield, and reducing cycle times and time-to-market. SAS exploits integrated data to institute the right problem-solving, monitoring, control and improvement actions. Available on a limited basis, SAS Process Intelligence general availability is expected in the fourth quarter of 2003. For more information, see http://www.sas.com/solutions/pri/index.html.

Providing customers with tangible ROI

Commerzbank, one of the four largest banks in Germany, and the thirty largest in the world, has used SAS forecasting software to develop an application to optimize the supply of cash to branches and cash machines - integrating with forecasts and optimization delivery propositions and order handling. "Our forecasting and order handling system has enabled us to free up to 18 percent of cash previously tied up in cash machines or logistic fees that we can now save or use to earn money," said Arne Ruban, CoBaCash project manager, Staff Department Organization, at Commerzbank. "It has also improved customer satisfaction by ensuring that machines don't run out of cash at peak periods like weekends and public holidays."

In the current economic climate, manufacturers are under increasing pressure to cut production costs - without impacting product quality. Supply chain intelligence will play an increasingly important role in identifying which parts of the production process to optimize to meet that goal. STMicroelectronics, Europe's leading semiconductor manufacturer, uses SAS at its manufacturing plant in Rousset and Crolles, France, to provide process intelligence that has enabled the company to improve production quality. The process intelligence application has helped STMicroelectronics to increase yield while reducing production cycle time yet still maintaining rigorous quality standards.

Consulting expertise and experience

SAS has formed the Supply Chain Analytics Consulting Group to eliminate the hurdles that have been keeping many companies from achieving their supply chain goals. According to the March 2002 Forrester report, "Bite-Sized SCM Projects," 64 percent of companies surveyed said supply chain implementations were more difficult than expected. And, among others, companies complained that traditional SCM implementations take too long.

The Supply Chain Analytics Consulting Group applies SAS' market-leading technology to address the complex needs of supply chain customers. Under the direction of Mike Haydock, the group leverages the expertise and global reach of SAS' local consulting services organization, coupled with extensive supply chain experience, to reduce implementation time and drive ROI.

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 39,000 sites - including 90 percent of 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 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) 2003 SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.

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