SAS leads information access tools market

BANGALORE: According to an IDC study, SAS leads the overall Information Access Tools (IAT) market with a 9.9 percent market share. The study by IDC on information access tools for the year 2002-2006, estimates the worldwide IAT market totaled $ 4.54 billion in 2001. The IAT category comprises business intelligence, such as end user query or reporting, OLAP, data mining, packaged data warehouse, and EIS, statistical and data analysis, and other tools. This was informed by SAS in a media statement.

According to the study, SAS leads analytic markets with the top market share in data mining at 38.3 percent and statistical and technical data analysis categories with 25.5 percent.

IDC (India) Limited, Head- Software & Services Research, Kapil Dev Singh, "Driven by the need of getting more business value from the use of enterprise wide applications like ERP, CRM, SCM and KM, the Information Access Tools market in India, though in initial stages, is all set to witness major growth.

The hottest sub categories therein would be data mining and statistical tools, where SAS is already a world leader with maximum share. And while the local market will witness stiff competition amongst world's leading players, SAS will surely be in a position to grab a major chunk of the relevant India market with its products that go beyond simple query and reporting functionality to include data mining and analytics."

A recent study by IDC Asia Pacific reveals Business Intelligence (BI) solutions being the hot-sellers in Asia's corporate world. IDC currently values the segment at $ 1.2 billion, where 43.5 percent comes from Australia and New Zealand, while South East Asia, India and Korea contribute 35.3 percent. Greater China constitutes the remainder of the pie.

SAS India, Managing Director, Gourish Hosangady, "In today's economy, business users demand intelligence to be accurate and timely. As a new generation of business intelligence emerges, companies clearly need proven applications built on top of an infrastructure that leverages existing investments in hardware, ERP systems, database software, etc. They look for solutions that offer rapid return on investment while meeting the unique needs of their industry today and tomorrow. And they want a vendor that can provide and support integrated and flexible technologies across an intelligence value chain -- from extraction to storage, to query and reporting and advanced analytics. SAS is that vendor."