SAS Subsidiary Positioned in Leaders Quadrant for Data Quality; Leading Analyst Firm Evaluation Based on Completeness of Vision, Ability to Execute

Business Wire, May 31, 2006

CARY, N.C. -- SAS announced today that its subsidiary DataFlux has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders Quadrant in the "Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools, 2006" report.(1) SAS acquired DataFlux in 2000 and has integrated DataFlux(R) solutions with SAS(R) software.

Gartner's report examined data quality software products and reviewed vendors' ability to execute as well as their completeness of vision. The report evaluated technology vendors that addressed various aspects of data quality, including parsing and standardization, cleansing, matching, profiling, monitoring and enrichment.

Data quality is an essential step for companies that seek to attain consistent and trusted data throughout the organization for any purpose, and SAS embeds DataFlux technologies to deliver data quality capabilities within its SAS(R) Data Integration solutions. With a complete range of technologies -- including connectivity and metadata; data cleansing and enrichment; extraction, transformation and loading (ETL); migration and synchronization; data federation; and master data management -- SAS Data Integration provides organizations with the flexibility, reliability and agility to respond quickly to new data integration requirements. SAS Data Integration allows enterprises to consolidate vendors, standardize on one integration solution for both operational and business intelligence applications, and reduce the overall cost of data integration.

According to the report authored by Ted Friedman and Andreas Bitterer: "Companies are discovering that data quality has a significant impact on their most strategic business initiatives. Compliance and transparency are at the top of the list of concerns -- that is, ensuring that organizations understand, and are controlling and reporting the performance of the business accurately."

"For many years, SAS has recognized the importance of data quality, which was reflected in our acquisition of DataFlux in 2000," said Joe Augustine, Manager of Data Integration Strategy at SAS. "SAS already offers many customers around the world a way to optimize their data consistency, make their data more trustworthy and reduce the costs of operational processes acting on their data. We are pleased that Gartner has positioned our subsidiary in the Leaders Quadrant. We believe it underscores SAS' commitment to data quality, and we look forward to maintaining our leadership position in 2006 and beyond."

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2006 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About SAS

SAS is the leader in business intelligence software and services. Customers at 40,000 sites use SAS software to improve performance through insight into vast amounts of data, resulting in faster, more accurate business decisions; more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; compliance with governmental regulations; research breakthroughs; and better products. Only SAS offers leading data integration, intelligence storage, advanced analytics and traditional business intelligence applications within a comprehensive enterprise intelligence platform. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know(R). 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. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.

(1) Gartner Research " Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools, 2006 " by Ted Friedman and Andreas Bitterer. April 21, 2006.