SAS team members posing for a group photo.

By Wilfred Pilo

KUCHING: SAS Institute Sdn Bhd (SAS Malaysia) kicks off 2008 with the theme “Transformation to Greatness” at an offsite meeting here.
SAS chose Sarawak as its preferred meeting destination and the Sarawak Convention Bureau played a vital role in highlighting Sarawak’s credentials.
SAS is the leader in business intelligence and analytical software and services.
It has customers at 43,000 sites and of whom uses the SAS software to improve their performance through insight from data, resulting in faster, more accurate business decisions, more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers, compliance with governmental regulations, research breakthroughs and better products and processes.
At the meeting, Managing Director of SAS Malaysia Jimmy Cheah announced SAS Malaysia’s 2007 financial performance, business achievements and their corporate direction for 2008.
He added that SAS had been growing yearly with an average of 30% revenue growth. The market leader in BI for the past few years, the IDC 1H07 AP BI Tracker placed SAS market share at 31.3%.
Some of SAS’s new customer installations in 2007 include PIDM, Parkson, AFFINBANK, F&N Coca Cola, CIMB Bank and many others.
“We grew twice beyond the local BI market growth rate in 2007 and we intend to be much better than that in 2008,” said Cheah.
Cheah said that their customers would remain as their primary focus for 2008 as they continue to innovate their organisation to couple business consulting through their established alliances and world-class analytical solutions.
By transforming the way they do things and compete in the market, they also aim to make SAS Malaysia a great place  for their staff. 2008 will mark a transformation in SAS business directive and approach.
“The SAS team is currently being expanded through our direct and indirect sales team in tandem with SAS onward strategy to cover a wider market and extend our market leadership in Malaysia.
“2008 will see SAS moving forward through strategic alliances with partners who bring about specific vertical industry value which can synergize with our existing and new offers for the expanding BI market,” Cheah added.
While in Kuching , SAS will hold a half-day team building exercise at Permai Rainforest Resort on Saturday before heading back to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday afternoon.