SAS Institute and Knowledge Integration Dynamics (KID) have inked a partnership agreement that will see KID providing consulting and best-practices services to new SAS clients.
"We have worked with KID on numerous projects in the past and always found the company and its people to be professional, reliable and very knowledgeable in the data warehousing space," says Craig Rodger, manager, product strategy and marketing at SAS Institute SA. "We view KID as a leading vendor of knowledge in SA and not as a product shop."
The agreement, effective as of April, will see KID acting in a supporting capacity to advise SAS customers on the design of their business intelligence (BI) solutions. The company will not be directly involved in sales or implementations at this stage.
Although KID also sells and supports competitive BI products, Rodger says SAS wants to leverage the company`s knowledge of industry best practices. "This partnership is a classic example of 'co-opetition`, a situation in which two companies can collaborate as well as compete."
Paul van der Merwe, director of KID, says the agreement matches both companies` business models: "SAS traditionally sells products and implements in cooperation with partners, while KID is focused on delivering BI and data warehousing best-practice services across the spectrum of technologies.
Van der Merwe adds that KID`s value-add lies on the design side, but that over time the company will add SAS-specific skills to its broad portfolio of BI technical competencies. "We want to be able to offer our customers solutions that are best suited to their requirements and not limit their choice of technology."
Rodger echoes this, saying: "Over the long-term we believe our relationship will grow and the value we recognised in KID`s knowledge base will be matched by its recognition of the value delivered in SAS Institute`s products. Our job is to ensure we make our products and offerings stand apart from the rest."
He notes that the ultimate goal of the partnership is not simply to provide SAS with a BI partner, but to create a joint asset from a combination of both companies` individual strengths that can be taken to market as a unique BI offering in SA.
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