NORWALK, Conn., Aug. 14, 2006 -- Three companies that have excelled in business performance management are winners of the 2006 Vision Awards presented by Business Finance magazine and SAS Inc.

The winners are Princess Cruises (Santa Clarita, Calif.), Wyeth Canada (Markham, Ontario) and Poway Unified School District (Poway, Calif.) in revenue categories of over $5 billion, $501 million to $5 billion, and under $500 million, respectively.

"This year's Vision Award winners truly represent the best in business performance management processes and systems," said David Blansfield, Group Publisher and Editorial Director for Business Finance magazine. "Each company has taken time-consuming, manual, spreadsheet-based processes and transformed them, not only cutting costs and streamlining processes but also facilitating better decision-making.

"The industries represented by our winners -- cruise lines, pharmaceuticals and public education -- are notoriously complex and challenging, serving diverse stakeholder interests," Blansfield noted. "Princess Cruises, Wyeth Canada and Poway Unified School District have all used performance management to align their strategic and operational plans by measuring, monitoring and optimizing key business drivers. They're all classic cases of how, when done right, performance management can create tangible value and competitive advantage for organizations, regardless of company size or type."

"We're delighted that Poway Unified School District is being honored for their work in performance management," said Kathy Lee, General Manager of SAS' Education and Medical Practice. "Poway has truly demonstrated leadership in the education market, particularly among K-12 schools. The district has been able to reverse the model of how the budget drives learning and the way dollars are spent. With SAS, district administrators are now able to proactively plan and effectively determine how dollars should be allocated to learning priorities so that students reap the greatest benefit."

Now in their 10th year, the Vision Awards are the only awards developed specifically to recognize business performance management (BPM), which includes strategic planning, business planning and budgeting, performance measurement and business and financial reporting. In addition to having demonstrated excellence in these processes, award winners have established organizational cultures that support and reinforce best practices in business performance management.

"This year's Vision Awards were very competitive. Not only did we receive more entries than ever before, but the quality of entries overall was vastly improved," Blansfield said. "It's obvious organizations understand how essential BPM systems and processes can be to achieving optimum performance."

The Vision Awards finalists, by annual revenue category, were:

    Greater than $5 Billion:
    Princess Cruises, Santa Clarita, Calif. (Winner)
    BNSF Railway, Fort Worth, Texas
    Fifth Third Bank, Cincinnati, Ohio

    $501 million to $5 Billion:
    Wyeth Canada, Markham, Ontario (Winner)
    Infosys Technologies, Bangalore, India
    Monster Worldwide, New York City
    International Rectifier, El Segundo, Calif.

    Under $500 Million:
    Poway Unified School District, Poway, Calif. (Winner)
    Benco Dental, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
    Restaurant Technologies, Eagan, Minn.
    Universal Stainless, Bridgeville, Pa.

This year's winners will be feted at the Business Performance Management Summit, Oct. 30 and 31, at the Hyatt Regency in Old Greenwich, Conn. In addition to providing a forum for the Vision Award winners and their case studies, the BPM Summit will bring together leading performance management practitioners to help participating executives and their organizations achieve maximum value from BPM systems and processes. Sponsored by SAS and other leading BPM vendors and consultancies, the BPM Summit agenda and registration information are available at http://www.bpmmag.net/summit.

About Business Finance Magazine

Business Finance is a trade magazine about and for senior business and finance executives - CEOs, CFOs, COOs, treasurers, finance directors, etc. Its purpose is to help them do their jobs and make better purchasing decisions. Editorially, Business Finance emphasizes content that anticipates important trends and quantifies their potential impact to its subscribers. Major areas of coverage include performance management, corporate finance, treasury and cash management and technology management.

For more information or to subscribe to Business Finance, visit http://www.bfmag.com/subscribe.

About SAS Inc.

SAS Inc. is the leader in business intelligence software and services. Customers at 40,000 sites use SAS software to improve performance through insight into vast amounts of data, resulting in: faster, more accurate business decisions; more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; compliance with governmental regulations; research breakthroughs; and better products. Only SAS offers leading data integration, intelligence storage, advanced analytics and business intelligence applications within a comprehensive enterprise intelligence platform. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know(R). 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.

 Contacts:

    David Blansfield
    Business Finance Magazine
    (203) 750-8245
    dblansfield@bfmag.com

    Mary Ann Campbell-Hickland
    SAS Inc.
    (919) 531-6997
    maryann.hickland@sas.com