SAS Expands Its OnDemand Portfolio

Business intelligence vendor SAS has added five new software-as-a-service applications to join its original on-demand offering, SAS Solutions OnDemand: Web Analytics.

• SAS Solutions OnDemand: Business Intelligence derives intelligence from customer, operational, financial and other data;
• SAS Solutions OnDemand: Supplier Relationship Management helps companies analyze and optimize their spending on raw materials and supplies;
• SAS Solutions OnDemand: Marketing Automation improves marketing response rates and revenues through customer communication;
• SAS Solutions OnDemand: Veridiem MRM, a marketing management application from SAS's Veridiem acquisition, provides users with tools to understand the return on investment from such marketing activities as advertising, promotions, incentives, direct mail, events and the Web;
• SAS Solutions OnDemand: Anti-Money Laundering is a monitoring system that helps financial services organizations comply with regulations and reduce the risk of illegal money-laundering activities.

Growing Share of SAS

The SaaS product line, first introduced in 2001 as an ASP service, is growing steadily, Richard Roach, senior director of SAS Solutions OnDemand, told CRM Buyer.

Last year, new sales of the on-demand product reached US$20 million -- some 5 percent to 10 percent of the company's overall sales in North America.

Growth of the product is on track to realize a minimum 20 percent increase this year, according to Roach. "We have enough in the pipeline to easily double our activity from last year," he said.

Over the last five years, SAS has gone from mastering the operational aspects of running a new business model to developing the expertise to help clients fully leverage this new option, noted Roach.

Viable Business Model

Many on-premise vendors have introduced an SaaS version of their products that cannibalize their on-premise base, Roach said, but the SAS OnDemand products are designed to take a different approach.

"Our customers want to be able to get the analytic value out of their data as fast as possible," he noted. Many of them have the SAS enterprise application already installed and are looking to supplement it with additional capabilities, such as compliance or supplier relationship management, he explained.

"We view our on-demand product line as an incremental way for our customers to address certain business issues," Roach said. "I have never heard a salesperson say to me that the on-demand product cost a sale of the enterprise version. What I have heard them say is that the on-demand application helped them figure out a certain business or integration problem for a customer."