SAP Portals certifies SAS Software Interface to Business Information Warehouse

Business Wire, August 10, 2001

Business Editors, High Tech Writers

CARY, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 10, 2001

Offering transparent access

to SAP Business Information Warehouse

SAS Institute, the market leader in integrated data warehousing and analytical CRM and a mySAP.com Software Partner, today announced that SAP Portals (an SAP AG company) has certified drag-and-drop Windows interface to SAS(R) software, Enterprise Guide(R), which complements SAP Portal's Business Information Warehouse(TM).

The certification strengthens a relationship between the two companies that began when SAS joined SAP AG's Complementary Software Partner Program. SAS(R) software also supports the latest version of the mySAP.com software suite.

"You can't create a complete picture of customer, supplier and organizational behavior without critical sources of operational data like Business Information Warehouse, and SAP AG's R/2 and R/3," said Jim Davis, SAS' senior vice president and chief marketing officer. "Organizations that invest in SAS as their intelligence layer are assured of existing and future compatibility between SAS, the world's leading vendor of analytical software, and SAP AG, a world leader in enterprise resource planning systems."

With Enterprise Guide and certification from SAP Portals, SAS is offering a major advance for e-businesses by turning warehouses full of customer-related data into usable business information. Enterprise Guide makes ERP and Business Intelligence work for e-business and CRM applications. SAS also is looking to extend its data analysis and data warehousing expertise to nontechnical users. The drag-and-drop interface offered with this version of Enterprise Guide insulates users from having to write SAS code and reduces the time it takes to generate a query. Enterprise Guide provides transparent access to local SAS data as well as other data types including Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access. It also provides transparent access to remote SAS data on Version 8 SAS servers and other relational databases. This means that data can be dragged and dropped from the SAS server, a Microsoft Excel file can be transferred to an MVS data table or to a SAS data table from UNIX to the PC. This Windows client connects to any Version 8 SAS server so users can access SAP/R3 and other data types supported by SAS software, use the execution power of that machine to run any SAS processes, and return professional reports and graphics to any PC.

"While ERP systems contain valuable information that is needed to support decision-making, they provide limited capability to analyze the data in order to answer critical business questions," added Davis. "Certification for SAP/BW means that business analysts and programmers can now tap into SAP Portal's BW with the full power of the SAS system using an easy to use graphical user interface."

Enterprise Guide, the easy-to-use, project-based, Microsoft Windows graphical user interface from SAS, has attained certification for the OLE DB for OLAP interface of SAP Business Information Warehouse 2.OB. Enterprise Guide gives non-technical users and analysts who are not familiar with SAS easy access to the power of SAS business intelligence and analytics. Support for open standards such as OLE DB ensures that data can be accessed from any source and manipulated easily in a drag-and-drop environment that offers pre-defined reporting templates. Marketing professionals, for example, can use Enterprise Guide to track return on investment in marketing projects. SAS also provides interfaces to R/2 and R/3.

About SAS

SAS provides business intelligence software and services powered by market-leading analytics. These solutions leverage an organization's operational data from all areas of the business, providing intelligence to make better, more informed decisions and maximize customer, supplier, and organizational relationships. Solutions from SAS, the world's largest privately held software company, are used at more than 37,000 business, government and university sites around the world. Customers include 98 of the Fortune 100 and 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies. For 25 years, SAS has been giving our customers The Power to Know(TM). For more information, visit www.sas.com.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries.(R) indicates USA registration. Copyright(c)2001 SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC, USA. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.