Businesses vote SAS Institute`s Datawarehousing Software Solutions Tops

ComputerWeek readers have nominated SAS Institute products for the annual Computerweek Best of Breed `99 Awards. The Awards, held annually, are highly regarded in the industry and are a barometer of user opinion of various cutting edge technology companies. Users of technology among South Africa`s top corporations were asked their opinion of different technologies and the 200 surveyed indicated that they thought that SAS Institute`s software in the data-warehousing category was the best.

The survey asks users of technology their experience of different products in various product categories. To qualify the product had to receive a minimum of ten votes. The survey was conducted among IT professionals from a random list of companies by ComputerWeek.

"We are delighted," said SAS Institute marketing manager, Franc Trivella. "SAS Institute is an award winner around the globe and this local award shows that our local users value our technology. SAS Institute invests vast sums into research and development and we make sure that our technology meets the needs of our users," he adds. Constant investment into research and development means that SAS Institute`s data warehousing solutions constantly meet changing business needs, and the company invests up to 30% of its revenues in research.

This investment has ensured that the company is able to produce the best solutions for the data warehousing market. Trivella believes that users voted in SAS Institute`s favour because of their unique "integrated end-to-end data warehousing offering". "I believe that we were judged on our ability to acquire internal and external operational data. We can do this no matter where it resides (all the common h/w platforms/operating systems), and no matter what format it is in (all the common relational and non-relational DBMS). The software is also able to transform this data into useful business information which can be understood and used by those who need it;" he says.

Other key aspects of the data warehousing software is the ability to store this information in multiple formats (relational and multidimensional databases); the ability to create and manage metadata; the ability to provide business users with a suite of development, analysis, reporting tools (OLAP, Web, Data Mining, RAD, and more).

"All of these give businesses the ability to turn information into knowledge or business intelligence, that can be used in the decision making process," adds Trivella.

"This adds up to providing the organisation with the competitive advantage it needs to stay in business in future," he adds.

SAS Institute has experienced double digit growth both locally and internationally. "SAS Institute is entering its fifth year of business in South Africa and the company`s growth path continues to show impressive year-on-year increases," he says.

Last year (1998) the company`s revenues grew by 52% in South Africa and the previous year by 50% (1997). This compares with a 22% growth rate in Europe and 15% growth worldwide. A slow-down in projected revenues is expected this year due to the impact of year 2000 on IT budgets and expenditure as fewer organisations will want to implement new systems. Local revenues for last year were R39,5 million.

The company aims to reach a billion dollar turnover by the year 2000.

Trivella adds that data warehousing is fast becoming recognised as one of the keys to business success as companies mine their data more effectively. "SAS Institute data warehousing tools make it easier to extract data intelligently and use that for effective business decisions across all industries," he adds.