SAS a clear leader in advanced analytics market, says IDC

In line with this, senior officials have confirmed that the company aims to strengthen its Middle East operations as more regional organisations increase their reliance towards advanced analytics in the face of the economic downturn. In addition, IDC also noted that SAS was placed second in the Business Intelligence tools segment and is among the top five suppliers of query, reporting and analysis tools segment within same period.

According to IDC's assessment, SAS has become an 'overwhelming leader in advanced analytics' with a 33% market share - more than twice the sales of the next closest supplier and more than the next 16 vendors on the list combined. The report also revealed that given their limited IT budgets, organisations chose 'SAS Analytics' far more often than any other analytics supplier. In the Middle East, where almost all industries have been affected by the economic slowdown and are therefore enforcing budget cuts, SAS has monitored an increase in the analytics investment of businesses and organisations, with its BI solutions forming part of its regional clients' efforts to remain competitive in anticipation of the economy's recovery.

"For the last three years in the Business Intelligence tools market, the advanced analytics segment grew faster than the query, reporting and analysis segment. We believe that this trend will continue even as economic conditions remain a challenge."

said Dan Vesset, IDC Program Vice President for Business Analytics Research and co-author of the report.

SAS' advanced analytics solutions help organisations uncover insights that are often hidden in data, which can assist companies solve complex business problems, manage performance, achieve measurable business objectives, drive sustainable growth through innovation, and anticipate and manage change.

In the banking sector, SAS' fraud, risk management and anti-money laundering technologies have been adopted by some of the leading financial organisations within the region; while oil and gas companies seeking to improve reservoir characterisation and flow modeling use 'SAS Analytics' to make reserves-exploitation decisions more quickly and accurately. SAS solutions are also prevalently used in the telecommunications and educational sectors in the Middle East.

"Advanced analytics is the way of the future for companies who seek continuous learning and improvement. By utilising real insight, global businesses, non-profit organisations, government agencies and universities can achieve sustained competitive advantage and the capacity to deal with diverse issues, wider range of regulations and tough economic conditions. With our globally-recognised expertise in areas of advanced analytics, data management and integration, configurability and support capabilities, we have provided some of the leading organisations in the region with powerful solutions, and we are glad that the provable value and sustained demand for our technologies and solutions is clearly validated by IDC in their latest research," concluded Carel Badenhorst, Head Technology Practice, SAS - Middle East.