IBM, SAS Institute Enter Key Business Intelligence Relationship; Announce Software and Services Integration for E-business - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Jan 31, 2000

SAS Institute and IBM, the leaders in business intelligence solutions, Monday announced a key relationship, the formation of a consulting practice, and further development of e-business intelligence solutions that integrate IBM's DB2 database product family and SAS software.

The announcement is the latest in a select group of key strategic relationships forged by IBM as it refocuses its partnering efforts to provide world-class e-business applications. Recent announcements have included partnerships with other leading software providers such as Siebel Systems and SAP AG. The news of the SAS Institute and IBM collaboration came at PartnerWorld 2000, IBM's largest annual event for its business partners.

The three-year agreement between IBM and SAS Institute and the joint development efforts will result in:

-- Creation of a consulting practice in IBM Global Services specializing in SAS solutions. These consultants will work with joint customers to integrate the decision support capabilities of SAS solutions with existing transaction systems and other IBM e-business applications.

-- Closer integration of SAS solutions and DB2 Universal Database to further enhance performance on all IBM server platforms, including Netfinity, AS/400, RS/6000, NUMA-Q and S/390.

-- IBM Global Services' access to a range of SAS solutions for business intelligence, data warehousing, and decision support.

"In today's competitive e-business environment, it's critical to build on a solid database foundation when deploying enterprise applications," said Barrett Joyner, president of SAS Institute North America. "Through the agreement with IBM and tighter integration with DB2, our joint customers will continue to tap the acclaimed business intelligence capabilities of SAS software solutions, as well as the expertise of IBM consultants to create the e-business solutions they need to compete in the new millennium."

Ben Barnes, general manager of IBM Global Business Intelligence Solutions, said, "With this agreement, SAS Institute and IBM are providing e-business intelligence solutions to help companies analyze their data and use the knowledge to drive strategic decisions. With joint solutions from IBM and SAS Institute, information-driven e-businesses will quickly differentiate themselves."

IBM Global Services will provide the analytical services, systems integration and industry-specific, e-business intelligence consulting expertise. SAS Institute will provide software solutions for:

1) Customer relationship management (CRM) - This SAS solution allows companies to analyze data from all customer contact points including e-commerce systems and turn that data into knowledge for understanding and predicting customer behavior, meeting customer needs, and building more profitable 1:1 relationships with customers. This solution includes new e-CRM capabilities that deliver content customization and personalization across all electronic channels.

2) ERP exploitation - SAS Institute offers intelligent warehousing solutions for leveraging enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications from SAP AG, Baan, and others. These solutions surface and exploit critical business information housed in ERP and other operational systems as part of an open, intelligent business decision-making process.

3) Supplier relationship management (SRM) - This SAS solution helps organizations optimize the supply chain by reducing procurement costs and leveraging relationships with key suppliers. The solution includes data rationalization and a procurement information warehouse, as well as enhanced analytics and Web-enabled reporting. By consolidating and classifying purchasing data, SRM allows organizations to get a clearer picture of their supplier relationships and understand what and from whom they buy.

SAS software and DB2 IBM and SAS Institute plan to more tightly integrate and thus enhance the combined performance of DB2 Universal Database and SAS software. With more than one million server licenses worldwide, DB2 Universal Database is the database market-share leader.

"DB2 is powering the world's e-business solutions by offering open, industrial-strength database management for business intelligence, transaction processing, and a broad range of applications," said Barnes. "More than 2,700 sites and 1,900 companies and organizations are running SAS software and DB2 Universal Database today, so tighter integration will help these existing joint customers and attract new ones too."

A history of working together SAS Institute has had formal relationships with IBM server divisions (S/390, AS/400, RS/6000, NUMA-Q and Netfinity) for many years. Monday's announcement extends the relationship to IBM Global Services and IBM Software Group, allowing IBM and SAS Institute the ability to jointly deliver complete solutions, including hardware, software, and services, to customers.

The new license agreement, formation of a new consulting and services team, and joint-development efforts are just the latest examples of a long history of IBM and SAS Institute striving to deliver better solutions that address customer needs.