"I strongly believe we have established the next generation of business intelligence, and with our R&D we have ensured we are the leader for many years to come," said SAS president and CEO Jim Goodnight at this week`s opening of SeUGi 20, the SAS user group conference in Paris.
With a host of announcements this morning, SAS reinforced its focus on enterprise business intelligence (BI) and industry-specific intelligence solutions.
Introducing the new release of SAS software, Version 9, Allan Russell, senior VP of strategy, SAS International, said: "We see a shift in the BI market from offering just a collection of tools used by the elite few in the organisation, to providing enterprise-level BI needed and used by everybody.
"We are by far the largest company involved in the business intelligence market," said Russell. "The fact that we are investing an awful lot in R&D gives us the advantage that other vendors are not able to keep up with."
With $1.13 billion in annual revenue, 38 000 sites and 3.5 million customers worldwide, SAS is the world`s largest privately owned software vendor, and sixth largest overall.
Phil Winters, chief marketing officer of SAS International, said the company invests over 25% of its annual software revenue in R&D - over twice the industry average.
Winters said SAS`s leadership comes from its ability to give analytical intelligence to business executives. "Every company has invested in technology but executives know they need something extra - they need intelligence to make sure they get the advantage, because the cost of making a mistake in today`s business [environment] is absolutely huge."
SAS also announced new vertical solutions that enable telecommunications companies and banks to focus on increasing customer profitability. The telecoms and banking solutions are currently available, with SAS Insurance Intelligence Solutions planned for September.
The theme of Paris SeUGi 20, attended by nearly 2 000 delegates, is "The Intelligent Enterprise". Out of over 200 presentations, 120 were delivered by SAS users and focused on how they achieved return on investment by using SAS solutions. The South African clients that shared their SAS experiences included Woolworths, FNB, MTN, Old Mutual, Standard Bank and the National Treasury of SA.
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