SA to benefit from enterprise intelligence expertise

South African businesses will be able to react with more certainty to fluctuating conditions through the use of enterprise intelligence that combines performance management with activity-based financial management.

So says Bruce Jones, Sales Support manager at SAS Institute South Africa, the local subsidiary of the world market leader in business intelligence. Jones' comment follows last month's (March 2002) acquisition by SAS of ABC Technologies, the leading provider of activity-based analytic management software.

"The acquisition will combine SAS's award-winning performance management technology with ABC Technologies' activity-based financial management and scorecarding expertise for unsurpassed enterprise intelligence," says Jones, adding that this latest move strengthens SAS's offering in the enterprise performance and financial management markets.

"Local customers who follow Activity-Based-Costing principals will now be able to incorporate this type of information in their financial reporting and scorecards," he says.

"Thus customer profitability and costs can be more accurately defined and reported on, enabling management to react with more certainty to fluctuating conditions. In the current economy - in which profitability is more important that revenue growth - the incorporation of ABC Technologies' solutions into those of SAS will ensure that those corporate goals are more easily attained."

SAS's announcement about the definitive agreement to acquire ABC Technologies follows an 18-month collaboration between the companies on the XML-based standard for scorecarding applications.

"By integrating the ABC team into SAS, we will become bigger and better," said Dr Jim Goodnight, SAS's president and CEO. "Our combined solution will provide our customers with a breadth of applications that other vendors in the space can't match."

"In addition to outstanding technology and great management from both teams, this transaction will provide us the resources of a billion-dollar operation," said Chris M Pieper, CEO of ABC Technologies. "The integration of activity-based costing with performance management addresses customer pains across many industries. I'm confident SAS will move to the front of the pack in the performance management space and then lead it to new heights."

ABC Technologies has more than 4 300 software installations in 73 countries with a wide range of customers from manufacturing, services, consumer goods and the public sector. Its client base of mid-size and global 1000 organisations will complement the SAS client base, which is primarily comprised of large companies.