Yphise again crowns SAS® Strategic Performance Management tops among competitors

2008 Strategy Management Assessment report calls SAS “superior”

CARY, NC – Independent analyst firm Yphise named SAS® Strategic Performance Management No. 1 in its assessment of strategy management applications. SAS, the leader in business analytics, topped Oracle/Hyperion, SAP/Business Objects, IBM/Cognos and Microsoft.

According to Yphise, SAS Strategic Performance Management best covers their list of 160 functional or technical requirements representing four dimensions: support for indicator definitions according to objectives, controlling and improving performance, monitoring performance over time, and improving operational strategy related to objectives. This second consecutive win highlights SAS’ maturity and suitability.

“SAS Strategic Performance Management helps customers improve performance by focusing on measures that matter, fostering alignment and accountability while predicting and preparing for the future,” said Becca Goren, Product Marketing Manager at SAS. “The operational dashboards for performance monitoring and strategic scorecards and diagrams help companies achieve strategic goals.”

In today’s economy, organizations must adapt quickly to survive and thrive. SAS Strategic Performance Management helps companies identify trends and patterns to determine why things happen and if they recur. The Web interface delivers information to the widest audience in the least amount of time, so employees can quickly adopt new strategies. Then SAS helps monitor results to facilitate strategies that achieve enterprise goals.

“Past solutions focused on financial objectives" said analyst Laetitia Bardoul from Yphise Paris labs. “Companies also need to respond to risks and opportunities related to nonfinancial or intangible issues. SAS demonstrates its commitment to integrating nonfinancial and intangible objectives into enterprise performance management. SAS’ solution includes all the capabilities required for managing the strategies according to corporate or operational objectives.”

Successful strategy management supports multiple stakeholders, including executives, middle management, employees and experts. Each business unit must understand the overall strategy and its contribution. Employees need clear understanding of their roles in meeting business unit and organizational objectives. Alignment is extremely challenging. Strategy management solutions must support the needs of these various stakeholders over time.

According to Yphise, “SAS Strategic Performance Management provides an easy-to-use and easy-to-customize strategy management model that helps manage any kind of objectives. SAS also provides predefined templates according to compliance issues, risks, vertical sectors or business departments; these accelerate strategy definition. Finally, the solution demonstrates strengths in managing operational actions related to objectives and in easily populating the indicators, manually or automatically.”

Since 1985, Yphise has continuously monitored the strategies and solutions of successful software vendors in order to select high-priority projects for improving the business performance. This research is ISO 9001:2000-certified (since 1999) evidence of independence and robust methodology for assessing software solutions according to issues and priorities of large companies.

About Yphise

Yphise identifies and certifies the software products that allow large companies to increase the value of their information systems while optimizing the costs and managing the risks. Yphise covers all areas of interest in order to develop, operate and secure the applications to compete. Yphise has assessed 150 software products each year since 1985. Each assessment is ISO 9001:2000-certified in order to guarantee independence and to focus on key issues for large companies. Yphise distributes more than 8,000 comparative assessment reports each year all over the world. Yphise has unparalleled experience in the recognition of winning strategies in software vendor claims. Thousands of investment decisions made by large companies have been based on Yphise independent research.

SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. With innovative business applications supported by an enterprise intelligence platform, SAS helps customers at 45,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know® .