SUGI Conference, CARY, N.C., April 28, 2005 -- At the 30th annual SAS(R) Users Group International (SUGI) conference in Philadelphia, SAS recognized many of its Alliance partners at an awards ceremony and reception. These top IT companies, including Accenture and IBM, are key global SAS Alliance partners, enhancing SAS' delivery of the best business intelligence software and services to the market.

Whether with software, hardware, consulting or services, SAS and its Alliance partners have the top minds and top technology to serve the ever-growing business intelligence world. "There's no mistaking our partnering vision: deliver the best technology and services to meet our customers' growing needs," said Don McDougall, vice president of the SAS Customer Solutions & Alliances Division. "SAS' global Alliance program includes the top companies in the IT food chain, and our customers are the ones benefiting from the feast."

Field's Choice Awards: Recipients of these awards are nominated by members of the SAS sales staff to recognize outstanding partner activities over the last year. "The SUGI conference gives SAS the unique ability to touch a great number of our end-users and listen to their feedback as well as offer them a look at the next enhancement of SAS and best practices," said Kelly Ross, vice president of U.S. Commercial Sales at SAS. "The strength of our partners is also a best practice for our customers, and showcasing the partners offers an in-depth look at SAS' value on our customers' needs."

The winners of the Field's Choice Awards are Accenture, Qualex Consulting Services, ThotWave Technologies, LLC, IBM and IBM Canada, and Bicon.

"The SAS and Accenture alliance saw tremendous growth in 2004 with focus on health and life sciences," said David Boath, lead partner for Accenture's HLS - R&D practice. "Many of our clients benefit greatly from our tight relationship with SAS, and being recognized by SAS as a key partner helps us leverage those benefits."

"In the government arena throughout North America, working with industry leaders is fundamental to the success of your initiatives," said Jay Ennesser, VP of cross-industry alliances for IBM Global Solutions. "SAS and IBM have had an association for many, many years, and our customers expect the very best from both companies. We are pleased to be numbered among the top SAS partners."

"This is our second year being recognized by SAS as a top partner and we are honored to have this distinction," said Clive Pearson, president of Qualex Consulting Services. "We have been a SAS partner since 1995 and have seen exponential growth in the BI space. Implementation success has become a crucial metric for success."

"For nearly 20 years, I've been associated with SAS in one way or another and the expertise we gain by being an Alliance partner is important to our success at ThotWave," said Greg Nelson, president and CEO of ThotWave Technologies LLC. "Understanding a company's needs and the technology necessary to meet those needs is what we do, and having access to SAS as an Alliance partner allows us quickly deploy the proper solutions so our customers have quality data-supported business analytics."

"Through experience and a growing knowledge of each other's strengths, what began as simply a successful partnership, evolved into a strategic alliance in 2004," said John Fursey of IBM Canada. "Our deeper relationship delivers more value to our clients and this award is a nice display of SAS' appreciation of its partners."

"We are in a developing environment in Central America and having a close relationship with SAS has given us the extra knowledge to successfully drive business in this region," said Romeo De la Cruz of BiCon. "We are honored to be acknowledged this way for such a leader in the market.

Service & Sales Excellence Awards: The Service & Sales Excellence Awards are presented to a partner in SAS' Government, Latin America, Education and Canada division for alignment and communication during and/or after the sale. This is a crucial step toward insuring client satisfaction.

SAS has strategic partnerships with organizations around the world and in every facet of the IT market. "I see our strategic partners as an extension of the best of SAS, and having the chance to thank them at an annual event is just a small way to showcase some of our partners," said Marianna Clampett, vice president of government, Latin America, education and Canada at SAS. "Especially in our Latin American and Canadian geographies and with our public sector organizations, SAS partners are crucial for their field expertise. It would be great if we could honor all the Alliance partners."

This year's winners of the Service & Sales Excellence Awards are Research Triangle Institute, Synerma and Accenture.

"Research Triangle Institute has partnered with SAS for less than two years. We have developed close relationships between RTI and SAS and with our clients to deliver customer solutions in the government and life sciences arena," said Dea Zullo, strategic alliance director at RTI. "This recognition from SAS was an unexpected tribute to a great affiliation."

"At Synerma, we are committed to a go-to-market strategy with SAS to serve our joint customer base," said Daniel Dube, president and CEO of Synerma. "It is wonderful to see SAS' commitment to its partners in such a public way."

"Particularly in Brazil, Accenture and SAS have had large success with joint initiatives, which have led both companies to a higher level of partnership," said Giancarlo N. Berry, who directs Accenture's global service line CRM in Latin America. "This partnership is opening a new set of opportunities and carrying a joint value proposition to our customers. We are very pleased to receive this award."

This year's SUGI conference drew more than 3,200 attendees, including a 63 percent increase in sponsorship participation by SAS Alliance partners.

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 40,000 sites - including 96 of the top 100 companies on the FORTUNE Global 500(R) - 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 nearly three decades, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know(R). Visit us at www.sas.com.

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Copyright (C) 2005 SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.

SAS Institute Inc.
Bobbi Harris, 919-531-8463
Bobbi.Harris@sas.com
www.sas.com/presscenter