SAS playing strong in advanced analytics: IDC

CARY, USA: Business analytics player SAS holds a 34.7 per cent market share in advanced analytics tools, up from 32.9 percent a year ago, according to leading industry analyst firm IDC.

Organizations of all sizes, in all industries, continued in 2009 to rely on the power of SAS. SAS' market share was more than twice that of the second largest software vendor in the advanced analytics market, says a press release. Twelve other companies accounted for a total of 7.6 per cent of the market, according to the recently published IDC Worldwide Business Intelligence Tools 2009 Vendor Shares1 report.

Despite 2009’s difficult global economy, customers invested in SAS Analytics to maximize customer relations, fight fraud, manage risk and solve all kinds of critical business issues, the company adds.

“Our analytics market leadership and continued growth, outpacing most of our competitors, is the best validation a software innovator could hope for,” said Jim Davis, SAS Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.

“Every point of SAS’ market share is a real customer using SAS Analytics to drive their enterprises for success. The data-driven organizations who depend on SAS serve as models for other organizations considering the value of SAS innovation,” Davis said.

“Our SAS use has certainly delivered performance gains for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, but it’s more than that. Our project, which involved a variety of SAS analytics and BI, allows us to better understand our key data and workflow. We can make product improvements to better serve our members,” said Jerry High, Manager, Enterprise Information Delivery.

“Underwriters and marketers now have more time to talk about the best way to serve clients. Accounting understands what it can promise in contracts about timely payments. Members can easily check online for everything from utilization to account balances. SAS has positively influenced many aspects of our business,” he said.

The IDC report noted that in addition to its preeminent position in advanced analytics, SAS is also one of the top five software vendors in query-and-reporting tools segment. SAS’ reinvestment of more than 20 percent of revenue back into research and development, even in a troubled economy, “bodes well” for the company’s continued success.