SAS Institute
Encyclopedia
SAS Institute Inc. headquartered in Cary
, North Carolina
, USA
, has been a major producer of software since it was founded in 1976 by Anthony Barr, James Goodnight
, John Sall and Jane Helwig. SAS was originally an acronym for Statistical Analysis System but, for many years, has been used as a tradename to refer to the company as a whole and its line of software products, which have long since broadened beyond the statistical analysis sphere. SAS Institute is one of the largest privately-held corporations in North Carolina and in the software business.
used in statistical analysis, consisting of numerous modules which ran on IBM
mainframe computer
s. In addition to the usual mainframe practice of writing and submitting programs in batch
, SAS offered the option, somewhat novel at the time, of a window
ed programming environment, where the program being written or edited appeared in one window, the program output appeared in another window, and the program log appeared in a third window.
As other types of computers became available and powerful enough, SAS was continuously developed to run in those environments as well, keeping the familiar user interface
and compatible file structure so that SAS users could easily switch from one type of operating system
and/or hardware to another. Eventually fully functional SAS could be run on personal computers, either standalone or networked
. The widespread rise of Microsoft Windows
, however, brought some philosophical difficulties to the product developers, faced with adapting the standard SAS programming interface familiar to SAS users to the standard Microsoft Windows interface familiar to PC users. In addition, even on the personal computer platform, SAS retained the mainframe pricing structure of substantial yearly licensing fees, rather than adopting the personal computer pricing standard of a one-time outright purchase.
consisting of a suite of modules designed for business intelligence
and customer relationship management
. Although the advent of more powerful personal computers has also allowed lower cost statistical packages to be available, SAS software continues to be the standard used in statistical analysis of clinical pharmaceutical trials
for submission to the Food and Drug Administration
. It is also widely used for statistical analysis in the insurance industry and the field of public health
, at least partially due to the handling of different types and formats of data. Other modules available provide for construction of applications for such tasks as data entry or validation. SAS also provides data mining
, data warehousing, business intelligence, sustainability and business performance management
software. Because of this wide spectrum, many users are expert in one area of the SAS package, but have little or no experience in another. Online documentation for SAS software is provided on their technical support website.
SAS Institute remains a wholly owned private company enabling the management, led by James Goodnight, to run the company without concern about the demands of shareholders. Approximately 25% of the revenue of the SAS Institute goes to research and development
. In addition, SAS management is known for its unique methods to keep employees happy through providing such things as its childcare centers, "M&M Wednesdays", soda fountains and snacks in every breakroom, and a 58000 square feet (5,388.4 m²) recreation and fitness center. SAS Institute has frequently been included in lists of the best places to work in America. CBS' 60 Minutes did a segment on the employee benefits of SAS, entitled "The Royal Treatment." These benefits may also account for its low turnover: SAS lost 3.7% of its employees in 2000, which is about a tenth of competitors' rates. In 2010, Fortune
magazine rated SAS the #1 place to work in the United States.
Some companies adopting BI software decide to pick and choose from different product offerings (best-of-breed) rather than purchase one comprehensive integrated solution (full-service).
Independent BI market surveys and analyses include:
There is an online user group, SAS-L, whose main Listserv
server is at the University of Georgia
. It is gatewayed to the Usenet
newsgroup
comp.soft-sys.sas. At SUGI 31 in San Francisco, preliminary steps were taken to establish a SAS Wiki FAQ maintained by the online SAS user community. In 2006, SAS Institute started online community forums, which provide a way to talk directly to SAS Institute developers and contain information which is otherwise under- or un-documented.
At the 2007 SAS Global Forum, a new hub for SAS user groups and SAS-related activity was announced. sasCommunity.org was created by SGF leaders and maintained by SAS users for the SAS community. It includes events, articles, SASopedia, TIPs and relating social media and websites. The intended keystone is Wikipedia
-style collaboration and information sharing.
are published by mainstream publishers (e.g. John Wiley & Sons
, CRC Press
) and many more by SAS Institute itself, which instituted a "Books By Users" program in the early 1990s. This program is now known as SAS Press, its own book publishing arm. Researchers and academics who have published their work with SAS Press include Neil Timm, Ravindra Khattree
, Dayanand N. Naik, Peter Westfall, and R. C. Littell.
in Cary, North Carolina
(now "WakeMed Soccer Park"). Jim Goodnight is one of the major contributors to Cary Academy
. In October 2008, SAS's Canadian division was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers
" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's
newsmagazine. Later that month, SAS was also named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers
, which was announced by the Toronto Star
newspaper. In 2010, and again in 2011 Fortune magazine ranked SAS as #1 among its "100 Best Companies to Work For".
SAS Australia was named a finalist in BRW Magazine's "Great Place To Work" survey in 2009 and 2010.
SAS Hall, the new mathematics and statistics building at North Carolina State University
, is named after the SAS Institute.
helicopter, a Boeing 737
Business Jet, an 8 passenger Cessna Citation X
, a pair of 12pax Dassault Falcon 900's and fractional ownership
in a six-passenger Hawker 400. Aircraft are housed in the company's hangar at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport
near the SAS campus.
Cary, North Carolina
Cary is a large town and suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina in Wake and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located almost entirely in Wake County, it is the second largest municipality in that county and the third largest municipality in The Triangle after Raleigh and Durham...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, has been a major producer of software since it was founded in 1976 by Anthony Barr, James Goodnight
James Goodnight
James "Jim" Goodnight is the CEO of SAS Instituteand is generally recognized as the wealthiest man in the state of North Carolina and one of the wealthiest in the world.-Biography:...
, John Sall and Jane Helwig. SAS was originally an acronym for Statistical Analysis System but, for many years, has been used as a tradename to refer to the company as a whole and its line of software products, which have long since broadened beyond the statistical analysis sphere. SAS Institute is one of the largest privately-held corporations in North Carolina and in the software business.
History
SAS's main and original product was the SAS software packageSAS System
SAS is an integrated system of software products provided by SAS Institute Inc. that enables programmers to perform:* retrieval, management, and mining* report writing and graphics* statistical analysis...
used in statistical analysis, consisting of numerous modules which ran on IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
mainframe computer
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
s. In addition to the usual mainframe practice of writing and submitting programs in batch
Batch
Batch may refer to:Food and drink*Batch , an alcoholic fruit beverage*Batch loaf, a type of bread popular in Ireland*A dialect term for a bread roll used in Nuneaton and Coventry, England*Small batch, bourbon whiskey blended from selected barrels...
, SAS offered the option, somewhat novel at the time, of a window
Window
A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
ed programming environment, where the program being written or edited appeared in one window, the program output appeared in another window, and the program log appeared in a third window.
As other types of computers became available and powerful enough, SAS was continuously developed to run in those environments as well, keeping the familiar user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
and compatible file structure so that SAS users could easily switch from one type of operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
and/or hardware to another. Eventually fully functional SAS could be run on personal computers, either standalone or networked
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
. The widespread rise of Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, however, brought some philosophical difficulties to the product developers, faced with adapting the standard SAS programming interface familiar to SAS users to the standard Microsoft Windows interface familiar to PC users. In addition, even on the personal computer platform, SAS retained the mainframe pricing structure of substantial yearly licensing fees, rather than adopting the personal computer pricing standard of a one-time outright purchase.
Company and software
SAS is a fourth-generation programming languageFourth-generation programming language
A fourth-generation programming language is a programming language or programming environment designed with a specific purpose in mind, such as the development of commercial business software. In the history of computer science, the 4GL followed the 3GL in an upward trend toward higher...
consisting of a suite of modules designed for business intelligence
Business intelligence
Business intelligence mainly refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data, such as sales revenue by products and/or departments, or by associated costs and incomes....
and customer relationship management
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...
. Although the advent of more powerful personal computers has also allowed lower cost statistical packages to be available, SAS software continues to be the standard used in statistical analysis of clinical pharmaceutical trials
Clinical trial
Clinical trials are a set of procedures in medical research and drug development that are conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be collected for health interventions...
for submission to the Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
. It is also widely used for statistical analysis in the insurance industry and the field of public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
, at least partially due to the handling of different types and formats of data. Other modules available provide for construction of applications for such tasks as data entry or validation. SAS also provides data mining
Data mining
Data mining , a relatively young and interdisciplinary field of computer science is the process of discovering new patterns from large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database systems...
, data warehousing, business intelligence, sustainability and business performance management
Business performance management
Business performance management is a set of management and analytic processes that enable the management of an organization's performance to achieve one or more pre-selected goals...
software. Because of this wide spectrum, many users are expert in one area of the SAS package, but have little or no experience in another. Online documentation for SAS software is provided on their technical support website.
SAS Institute remains a wholly owned private company enabling the management, led by James Goodnight, to run the company without concern about the demands of shareholders. Approximately 25% of the revenue of the SAS Institute goes to research and development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
. In addition, SAS management is known for its unique methods to keep employees happy through providing such things as its childcare centers, "M&M Wednesdays", soda fountains and snacks in every breakroom, and a 58000 square feet (5,388.4 m²) recreation and fitness center. SAS Institute has frequently been included in lists of the best places to work in America. CBS' 60 Minutes did a segment on the employee benefits of SAS, entitled "The Royal Treatment." These benefits may also account for its low turnover: SAS lost 3.7% of its employees in 2000, which is about a tenth of competitors' rates. In 2010, Fortune
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
magazine rated SAS the #1 place to work in the United States.
Business Intelligence market
The business intelligence market includes a number of platform or software vendors, often categorized into:- The consolidated big four "megavendors", which are SAP BusinessObjectsBusiness Objects (company)SAP Business Objects is a French enterprise software company, specializing in business intelligence . Since 2007, it has been a part of SAP AG. The company claimed more than 46,000 customers worldwide in its final earnings release...
, IBM CognosCognosCognos was an Ottawa, Ontario-based company making business intelligence and performance management software. Founded in 1969, at its peak Cognos employed almost 3,500 people and served more than 23,000 customers in over 135 countries.Originally Quasar Systems Limited, it adopted the Cognos...
, Oracle HyperionHyperion SolutionsHyperion Solutions Corporation was a business performance management software company, located in Santa Clara, California, USA, which was acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2007...
, and Microsoft BI. These are corporations who have entered the BI market through a recent trend of acquisitions in the industry. - The remaining independent "pure-play" vendors, the largest being SAS and MicroStrategyMicroStrategyMicroStrategy, Inc. , is a business intelligence software vendor. MicroStrategy's software enables leading organizations worldwide to analyze the vast amounts of data stored across their enterprises to make more strategic business decisions...
.
Some companies adopting BI software decide to pick and choose from different product offerings (best-of-breed) rather than purchase one comprehensive integrated solution (full-service).
Independent BI market surveys and analyses include:
- GartnerGartnerGartner, Inc. is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001....
's BI Magic Quadrant, which placed SAS in the "Leaders" quadrant in 2010 - Business Application Research Center (BARC)'s BI Survey and BI Verdict (formerly the OLAP Report)
User groups
The SAS community includes large, well-organized users groups on the local, regional, and international scales. While these serve to make some of the resources of SAS Institute and more experienced users available to the new user, they also serve the Institute by providing essentially free customer service and public relations functions.Worldwide
The SAS Global Forum meets for a conference in a different city each year, where marketing efforts by the Institute combine with technical and educational presentations by users of all levels of sophistication. Unlike entities such as the Independent Oracle Users Group, however, the Global SAS User Group has never been a completely independent and self-sufficient users group; instead, SAS Institute and the Global SAS User Group Executive board have formed a collaborative relationship in the formation of the conference structure and control of finances. The SAS Global Forum is administered by an Executive Board consisting of prior conference chairs and representatives from SAS Institute. Full-time employees manage and run the logistics of the SAS Global Forum conference itself, with the help and participation of volunteers (serving in such roles as section chairs and speakers) from the user community. After the 2006 conference in San Francisco SAS Global Forum was renamed from SAS Users Group International (SUGI). Only two people have attended every SAS Global Forum: SAS CEO Jim Goodnight and Phil Miller from Washington University in Saint Louis.Regional and online
Similar but more independent user conferences are held yearly by regional and local SAS users groups around the world. The US has six regional users groups: MWSUG, the MidWest SAS Users Group; NESUG, the NorthEast SAS Users Group; PNWSUG, the Pacific Northwest SAS Users Group; SCSUG, the South-Central SAS Users Group; SESUG, the SouthEast SAS Users Group; and WUSS, the Western Users of SAS Software. In addition, there are special interest users groups such as PhUSE, the independent Pharmaceutical Users Software Exchange, which also hold annual conferences in Europe, and PharmaSUG, also a users group concentrating on the pharmacetical industry, based in the United States.There is an online user group, SAS-L, whose main Listserv
LISTSERV
LISTSERV was the first electronic mailing list software application, consisting of a set of email addresses for a group in which the sender can send one email and it will reach a variety of people...
server is at the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
. It is gatewayed to the Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
newsgroup
Newsgroup
A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
comp.soft-sys.sas. At SUGI 31 in San Francisco, preliminary steps were taken to establish a SAS Wiki FAQ maintained by the online SAS user community. In 2006, SAS Institute started online community forums, which provide a way to talk directly to SAS Institute developers and contain information which is otherwise under- or un-documented.
At the 2007 SAS Global Forum, a new hub for SAS user groups and SAS-related activity was announced. sasCommunity.org was created by SGF leaders and maintained by SAS users for the SAS community. It includes events, articles, SASopedia, TIPs and relating social media and websites. The intended keystone is Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
-style collaboration and information sharing.
Partners
In March 2008, SAS and icrunchdata partnered to create the SAS Job Network in order to "link the demand for analytical talent and SAS skills with the supply. Graduates with analytical skills, especially at the entry level, are increasingly needed as companies invest in technology to analyze growing stores of data to make better business decisions."Publishing
Books and publications related to the SAS SystemSAS System
SAS is an integrated system of software products provided by SAS Institute Inc. that enables programmers to perform:* retrieval, management, and mining* report writing and graphics* statistical analysis...
are published by mainstream publishers (e.g. John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...
, CRC Press
CRC Press
The CRC Press, LLC is a publishing group which specializes in producing technical books. While many of their books relate to engineering, science and mathematics, their scope also includes books on business, forensics and information technology...
) and many more by SAS Institute itself, which instituted a "Books By Users" program in the early 1990s. This program is now known as SAS Press, its own book publishing arm. Researchers and academics who have published their work with SAS Press include Neil Timm, Ravindra Khattree
Ravindra Khattree
Ravindra Khattree is an Indian born statistician and professor of statistics at Oakland University. His contribution to the Fountain-Khattree-Peddada Theorem in Pitman measure of closeness is one of the important results of his work. Khattree is the coauthor of two books and has coedited two...
, Dayanand N. Naik, Peter Westfall, and R. C. Littell.
Other strategies
More recently, SAS Institute has followed the lead of other major corporate software suppliers by offering SAS Certification for SAS programmers, users, and developers to eliminate some of the risk of hiring individuals of unknown ability; like many such programs, it has met with mixed success. The Institute has similarly launched a program of SAS Partners, who provide a pool of available consultants for corporations who wish to begin incorporating SAS applications into their operations but lack any experience with the software. These individuals also serve as unpaid ambassadors, evangelists, and salesmen for the Institute; as they market their services and products to corporations, as a consequence licensing fees naturally will flow to SAS.Community and awards
Until recently SAS was the principal sponsor of SAS Soccer ParkSAS Soccer Park
WakeMed Soccer Park is a major soccer complex located in Cary, North Carolina, United States. Originally opened in 2002 as the home of the Carolina Courage of the WUSA, WakeMed Soccer Park is now the home to the Carolina RailHawks of the North American Soccer League...
in Cary, North Carolina
Cary, North Carolina
Cary is a large town and suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina in Wake and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located almost entirely in Wake County, it is the second largest municipality in that county and the third largest municipality in The Triangle after Raleigh and Durham...
(now "WakeMed Soccer Park"). Jim Goodnight is one of the major contributors to Cary Academy
Cary Academy
Cary Academy is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian, college-preparatory secondary school in Cary, North Carolina established in 1996. The school places an emphasis on the use of technology in the classroom, with tablet computers issued to all students...
. In October 2008, SAS's Canadian division was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers
Canada's Top 100 Employers
Canada's Top 100 Employers is an annual competition that recognizes the best places in Canada to work. First held in 1999, the project aims to single out the employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional working conditions and progressive human resources policies. Winners are...
" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
newsmagazine. Later that month, SAS was also named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers
Greater Toronto's Top Employers
Greater Toronto's Top Employers is an annual competition that recognizes the best places to work in the Greater Toronto Area...
, which was announced by the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
newspaper. In 2010, and again in 2011 Fortune magazine ranked SAS as #1 among its "100 Best Companies to Work For".
SAS Australia was named a finalist in BRW Magazine's "Great Place To Work" survey in 2009 and 2010.
SAS Hall, the new mathematics and statistics building at North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...
, is named after the SAS Institute.
Aircraft
SAS also maintains six aircraft for use in company operations including Bell 407Bell 407
The Bell 407 is a four-blade, single-engine, civil utility helicopter; a derivative of the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger. The 407 uses the four-blade rotor with composite hub developed for the United States Army's OH-58D Kiowa Warrior instead of the two-blade, semi-rigid rotor of the 206L-4...
helicopter, a Boeing 737
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...
Business Jet, an 8 passenger Cessna Citation X
Cessna Citation X
The Cessna Citation X is a long-range medium business jet aircraft. The Citation X is powered by two Rolls-Royce turbofan engines and is built by the Cessna Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas. It is the fastest production civilian jet in the world. The Citation brand of business jets encompasses...
, a pair of 12pax Dassault Falcon 900's and fractional ownership
Fractional Ownership
In business, fractional ownership is a percentage share of an expensive asset. Shares are sold to individual owners. A fractional owner enjoys priorities and privileges, such as reduced rates, priority access on holidays and income sharing. Typically, a company manages the asset on behalf of the...
in a six-passenger Hawker 400. Aircraft are housed in the company's hangar at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport
Raleigh-Durham International Airport
Raleigh-Durham International Airport is a public international airport located 4.5 miles northeast of the town of Morrisville in suburban Wake County, North Carolina, United States. The airport covers and operates three runways, providing direct service to 40 domestic and international...
near the SAS campus.
See also
- DataFluxDatafluxDataFlux Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of SAS Institute headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, is a software provider of data management technology and services...
- JMP - statistical/graphical software suite developed by SAS Institute in 1989
- Memex Technology LimitedMemex Technology LimitedMemex Technology Limited is a Scottish software company delivering mission-critical information systems and services for the Law Enforcement and Security markets. It is headquartered in Peel Park in East Kilbride, Scotland. In July 2010 it was acquired by SAS Institute Inc...
- software firm acquired by SAS Institute in 2010 - Teragram CorporationTeragram CorporationTeragram Corporation is a fully owned subsidiary of SAS Institute, a major producer of statistical analysis software, headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, USA...
- text mining firm acquired by SAS Institute in 2008