BANGALORE, INDIA: SAS, a leader in business intelligence and analytics, again outpaced the BI tools market with 16.6 percent growth in BI tools revenue in 2007.

This percentage represents the highest market share growth rate of the top five BI vendors, according to the recently issued report titled, "Worldwide Business Intelligence Tools 2007 Vendor Shares: Query, Reporting, and Analysis, and Advanced Analytics Markets Stable in the Face of Economic Turmoil".

For the 11th consecutive year, SAS holds the No. 1 worldwide market share position among all advanced analytics software vendors. SAS' sales of advanced analytics software, totaling $439.8 million in 2007, led the market with 31.9 percent share--more than twice that of the nearest competitor--and showed 15.2 percent growth over the previous year.

SAS' analytics offerings include descriptive and predictive analytics as well as optimisation solutions. In the past year, the advanced analytics segment of the BI tools market grew faster than the query, reporting and analysis segment – a testament to the realised value of analytics in business intelligence for critical competitive advantage.

Dan Vesset, program vice president for Business Analytics Research at IDC and co-author of IDC's report, said, "Recent growth reflects an increasing need for software that provides faster access to broader information. BI tools are finally entering a mass market. It's a prelude to the next market cycle that will lead to pervasive business intelligence."

Jim Davis, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at SAS, said, "With a 32 year track record of delivering proven results and the ability to innovate, SAS is more and more often the first company people call when needing to solve business problems. Our customers look to us as not just a software company with unmatched analytical capabilities and industry expertise but more as a strategic partner to help them accelerate performance."

Today's news follows another recent IDC report demonstrating SAS' leadership in the business intelligence software market. IDC ranked SAS No. 1 in the combined business intelligence, financial performance and strategy management market in Hong Kong, with 27 percent market share in 2007 (IDC Asia Pacific Semiannual Business Intelligence Tracker, 2H07, March 2008 by Sharon Tan).

The SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform provides an integrated environment for predictive analytics and descriptive modeling including data mining, text mining, forecasting, optimisation, simulation and experimental design and it leverages BI to open the world of SAS analytics to all types of users so they can make better, quicker decisions.

The platform optimally integrates individual technology components within existing IT infrastructures into a single, unified system. It facilitates information flow that transcends organisational silos, diverse computing platforms and niche tools and it delivers new insights that drive value for organisations.

SAS also offers targeted business solutions that support enterprise intelligence, customer intelligence, financial intelligence, supply chain intelligence and more. In addition, SAS has turn-key solutions for various vertical markets such as financial services, life sciences, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and others.