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SAS Releases New Version of SAS Business Analytics Platform [Professional Services Close - Up](Professional Services Close - Up Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) SAS announced that customers will soon have more choices in how they deploy SAS software: in public or private clouds, hosted by SAS, or via on-premise software. According to the company, this flexibility is the result of a new version of the platform for SAS Business Analytics, the foundation for all SAS products. With the June shipment of SAS 9.4 foundation software, customers can deploy SAS products and solutions in the manner that best suits their business. For example, customers who require quick access to SAS software to support an immediate business need or who are looking to reduce upfront costs can choose SAS hosting or a public cloud deployment. Other customers may opt for an on-site deployment for reasons such as tighter data control. "Every IT organization is either building their own private cloud of virtualized systems on commodity hardware or looking to third- party providers. SAS 9.4 allows your IT team to choose SAS with the confidence that it meets their requirements for security, authentication, scale and resiliency. In short, SAS 9.4 is easier to deploy, manage and maintain," said Keith Collins, SAS Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "These enhancements will make it easier for users to access new SAS High-Performance Analytics capabilities in our current analytic product portfolio. Furthermore, SAS 9.4 provides access to numerous new features in our data management products, as well as enhanced Hadoop integration. Our goal is to decrease the time to value for SAS users while reducing the total cost of ownership for IT," he said. Data visualization on new platform One of the first products to build on the SAS 9.4 foundation and take advantage of cloud deployment is SAS Visual Analytics. As the number of SAS Visual Analytics customers continues to grow - now more than 200 worldwide - so does the demand for new features. This latest release of this data visualization software, the third in just over a year, includes a wide range of upgrades. "Supporting private and public cloud and software as a service for SAS Visual Analytics builds on the company's long history of hosted solutions," said Cindi Howson, CEO and founder of BI Scorecard. "SAS Visual Analytics is a visually appealing product that combines ease of use with SAS' mathematical brain power." SAS Visual Analytics forecasting support, now with new scenario analysis capabilities, adds prescriptive analytics to existing descriptive and predictive analytics, helping organizations move to more advanced uses of analytics. "The new forecasting is a clear differentiator," said Howson. "SAS Visual Analytics supports six different forecasting algorithms, including one that accounts for seasonality. Users can also specify which variables to use in the forecast, as well as simulation. This robust forecasting is a step up from what most BI products offer." As described by the company, the features include: -Analytics: support for scenario analysis and decision trees. -Reporting: more graphical themes and custom theme definitions, enhanced progressive filtering, ability to define custom graph templates, expanded report linking. -Mobile: increased collaboration with annotation markups and sharing, integration with mobile device management. -Security: improved flexibility in setting permissions. -Server platform: new support for Windows 64-bit, in addition to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and SuSE Enterprise Linux Server 11. Among the first customers to recognize the value of SAS Visual Analytics was Philippines retailer SM Marketing Convergence Inc. SM- MCI was initially drawn to SAS Visual Analytics by its look and feel. Upon recognizing its analytic powers and scalability, SM-MCI replaced QlikView from QlikTech and ARC from Manthan with SAS Visual Analytics for data discovery in its customer loyalty operations. "We process vast amounts of transaction data every day so that customers can accurately see accrued loyalty points. Our data store is an extremely rich market-data source for all retail spending in the Philippines. We needed a more powerful tool to gain insights on customer buying behaviors and create more effective promotions. SAS Visual Analytics has proven to be the right choice," said SM-MCI President and CEO Baldwin C. Golangco. SAS is a company focusing in business analytics software and services. More Information: http://www.sas.com ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) (c) 2013 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |