SAS named as a leader within global Business Analytics software industry

With a powerful set of diverse Business Analytics offerings, SAS continued to outpace the overall market in 2007 registering 13.9% growth in comparison to the global Business Analytics software market, which grew at a 12.7% rate for the same period. In addition, company officials expect to continue outperforming the worldwide business analytic software market, which was valued at $19.3bn in 2006.

As a leading business analytics vendor in the world with global sales touching $2.15bn in 2007, SAS recognises the extensive growth opportunities in the region. Owing to the economic downturn, IDC predicts that the Business Analytics market will grow at a slightly slower rate in the next five years with a forecasted compound annual growth rate of 9.7%. However, SAS is confident of growth prospects in the Middle East following the recent appointment of Shukri Dabaghi as the General Manager for the region. Further, SAS intends to penetrate the burgeoning demand in the region through its highly successful analytic and comprehensive enterprise intelligence framework whilst maintaining its dominance in the advanced analytics market.

"The value of Business Analytics to organizational performance continues to gain followers among corporate leaders who, according to our research, continue to invest in solutions that yield better decisions,"

said Dan Vesset, Program Vice President, Business Analytics Solutions for IDC.

"With its singular focus on analytics and broad portfolio of industry-specific applications, SAS is well positioned to grow even in a troubled economy."

SAS is unique among Business Analytics vendors not only because of the breadth of its software portfolio, but also because its products provide solutions to business process specific decision-making and optimization issues faced by organizations in all industries. IDC has ranked SAS as among the leaders within the Business Analytics industry, and the company is consistently ranked as a leader in numerous subcategories. Currently, SAS offers an in-depth portfolio of industry-specific solutions for financial services, telecommunications, transport, life sciences, health care, energy, retail and other sectors. These include anti-money laundering, drug development and supply chain management, as well as numerous other applications, in addition to cross-industry solutions.

"The performance solutions that we provide our clients enable them to fully utilise the power of the extensive information contained in their databases thereby aiding decision makers to make accurate and efficient business decisions. In an incredibly dynamic market such as the Middle East where demands for intelligent business data management are soaring, SAS is giving businesses another way to be more efficient and effective by helping them balance and take advantage of their technology resources. SAS offers a true framework for Business Analytics with all of the necessary solutions and applications to make a clear impact on business goals, and IDC has recognized our commitment to lead this trend," concluded Shukri Dabaghi, General Manager, SAS - Middle East.

Since the company's establishment in 1976, SAS has lived up to its dedication of providing customers around the world with business intelligent software, which is being used at 43,000 sites to improve performance through insight from data, resulting in faster, more accurate business decisions; more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; compliance with governmental regulations; research breakthroughs; and better products and processes. SAS is the only company of its kind, which offers leading data integration, storage, analytics and business intelligence applications within a comprehensive enterprise intelligence platform.