SAS Institute has announced strong third quarter results, maintaining its consistent track record of profitability. The company increased total software revenue for the first three quarters of 2003, up 14% compared with the same period in 2002.
According to SAS South Africa managing director Bill Hoggarth, this country continues to be one of the strongest markets for the company, returning growth rates above the strong international results. "This has largely been driven by our customers' desire to leverage intelligence to the fullest, and by both local and international regulatory, such as Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley," he says.
Key areas that have driven SAS's success include increased attention to corporate governance and risk management, while customer intelligence and sound financial management principles have contributed, adds Hoggarth.
SAS and its customers are reaping dividends from the company's continued investment in its corporate infrastructure and software solutions. While many vendors have flattened or reduced spending on R&D, SAS has steadfastly maintained its annual reinvestment of more than 25% of revenue back into product research and development. The company is also benefiting from its decision to increase hiring during the economic downturn to bolster both its R&D and customer-facing operations around the globe.
SAS has continued its move toward providing industry-specific solutions, combining its unparalleled analytic strength with the added value of domain expertise in such areas as telecommunications, banking, insurance, manufacturing and the public sector.
Earlier this month, SAS announced the acquisition of Marketmax, the leader in retail intelligence applications. "This acquisition further demonstrates SAS's commitment to not only the retail industry but to increasing its overall industry-focused approach to sales, marketing and R&D," says Hoggarth.
He adds that within the intelligence value chain, one of SAS's key differentiators is the ability to not only report on the past, but anticipate future scenarios - telling organisations not only where they have been, but also where the need to go.
"This differentiation earned SAS significant recognition for its customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. When companies implement systems that are purely operational, CRM fails to deliver on its promise. SAS adds an analytic component that drives the ROI in these systems," Hoggarth explains.
The continued performance of the company is testament to the enduring excellence of its the technology, and its efforts to work with customers to extract and deliver maximum business value from that technology," says Jim Goodnight, CEO and president of SAS.
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SAS is a 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 90% of the Fortune 500 - to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organisations 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 more than 25 years, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know.
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