Business intelligence software leader SAS Institute has been named as one of the top 10 vendors in terms of value and reliability in an innovative survey by respected US magazine, CIO Insight.
Placed seventh, it was the highest ranked BI software company on the list.
"SAS is one of the few software companies that continually delivers measurable business value to customers, year-on-year," says Bill Hoggarth, managing director of SAS Institute SA. "We are delighted that this survey has highlighted this."
CIO Insight asked CIOs to rate vendors they had worked with in the past 12 months for business value and reliability.
The CIO Insight Research Study, "Vendor Value: Are you getting what you paid for?" (December 2003), rated 41 product and service vendors The top 10 received the most "excellent" scores. According to the organisation, the "survey can help IT executives see how their peers view the business value and reliability of many widely used IT vendors".
"Surveys such as this are very useful for CIOs, for whom the actual product is only part of the picture," says Hoggarth. "They need to investigate several other areas as well."
In the BI arena, for example, there are five areas to investigate, according to Hoggarth. The vendor must offer a comprehensive BI platform which can lay the foundation for an entire BI initiative.
Secondly, the vendor must offer advanced analytics. "The statistical rear view mirror approach is important, but real value lies in the ability to leverage that analysis into accurate forecasting, or prediction," says Hoggarth.
Also vital is to ensure that the BI partner chosen is strong and stable. In SA it is increasingly important that businesses ensure the vendor is here to stay.
Finally, this corporate strength must be matched with global reach, and customer commitment.
The full CIO Insight top 10 list was:
1. Symantec
2. Adobe
3. Cisco Systems
4. Dell
5. Motorola
6. Hewlett-Packard
7. SAS Institute
8. IBM
9. Apple Computer
10. PalmOne
Share
(Source: The CIO Insight Research Study: Vendor Value: Are You Getting What You Paid For?" December 2003.)
What does the survey measure? CIO Insight's Vendor Value Survey measures general perceptions among US-based IT executives of the value of their vendors' product and service offerings, and their overall satisfaction with the support these vendors provide. How were the vendors selected? The published results include only vendors that received 50 or more qualified responses on all ratings. To create our list of the most widely used computer hardware, software, IT consulting and outsourcing companies in the US, we relied on several sources for revenue data: Gartner, the Fortune 1000 list, the Forbes Private 500 list, Hoover's Online, and annual and financial reports of individual companies.
How was the survey conducted? CIO Insight editors designed the 2003 Vendor Value and Satisfaction Survey together with Equation Research, LLC (www.equationresearch.com), an Estes Park, Colorado-based supplier of custom research services. IT executives gathered from Ziff Davis Media publication lists were invited to participate in the study by e-mail. The questions were posted on a password-protected Web site, and 1 281 qualified respondents (642 from companies with 1 000 employees or more, and 639 from companies with 50 to 999 employees) replied from 7 October to 23 October 2003. Of the respondents, 56% were CIOs or CTOs, and the rest held titles of vice-president of IT or higher. Respondents were considered qualified only if they described themselves as very knowledgeable or knowledgeable about the IT vendors and consultants their company uses, and the value it has received from them.
How are vendors rated? After identifying the vendors they have had a business relationship with in the past 12 months, and whether they use the vendor as a hardware provider, software provider, consultant or outsourcing services provider, respondents were asked to rate vendors as "excellent", "good", "fair" or "poor" on seven key criteria. Four concern value: 1) how well they have met their company's expectations for increasing revenues (or achieving mission, if not-for-profit), and 2) for lowering business or IT costs, 3) how well they have solved the business problem their products or services were purchased or engaged to solve and 4) have met their company's ROI (business value) expectations. The other three criteria focus on reliability: 5) how well they have met commitments to their company on time and budget, 6) how flexible and responsive they have been to their company's needs and 7) how well they have met their company's quality expectations for their products and services. The "overall" rating is the means of respondents answering "excellent" or "good" for these criteria. In addition, respondents were asked whether, if they had a choice, they would or would not continue to do business with each individual vendor. Unless otherwise noted, percentages given are the percentage of respondents who answered either excellent or good.
SAS
SAS is the 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 96 of the top 100 of the 2003 Fortune Global 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 nearly three decades, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know.