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SAS Institute announces record revenue for 1998 Data warehousing, data mining, and business solutions drive growth SAS Institute, the market leader in information delivery software, has announced that 1998 revenue increased by 16 percent over the previous year to $871.4 million. SAS Institute continued to build on its leadership in open, end-to-end data warehousing, with 60 percent of new license revenue coming from data warehouse-based solutions and tools. SAS Institute's year-end results compared favorably to many high-tech vendors who reported revenue declines in sagging markets, and reductions in software licensing growth. SAS Institute's percentage revenue from software licensing remained strong at 95 percent of total revenue. Weak markets such as Asia did not affect revenue, as Asian businesses showed an increased interest in software that would help them make use of their diverse enterprise data assets to increase profitability through a better understanding of their business, customers, and industry. Percentage of revenue from around the globe was consistent compared to 1997, with 53 percent from North America, 36 per cent from Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and 11 per cent from Asia/Pacific and Latin America (APLA). Percentage growth of first-year licenses for each region was 24 per cent in North America, 24 per cent in EMEA, and 15 per cent in APLA. SAS Institute continued its leadership in percentage of revenue invested in research and development - 31 per cent - far outstripping the industry average of 19 percent. This investment reflects SAS Institute's commitment to focusing on the long-term needs of its customers. The Institute’s data-warehousing capabilities served as the foundation for new business solutions, led by the Institute's successful launch in first quarter 1998 of a customer-relationship management (CRM) solution. SAS Institute President and CEO Jim Goodnight said, "For more than 20 years SAS Institute has been the market leader in decision support software tools. Customers select our software for its ability to build custom decision support systems that give them an advantage over their competitors. But many new customers don't have the luxury to build from scratch, so we're seeing more and more demand for 'ready-to-customise' solutions that give them the best of both worlds. With our new solutions, we provide a customisable framework, and help customers get their applications up and running quickly, so they can begin solving problems faster." Other solutions that saw strong growth were CFO VisionÔ software for financial consolidation and reporting, IT Service VisionÔ software for enterprise information system management, and PharmaHealth solutions for clinical data review, reporting and analysis. In the tools and applications area, SAS Enterprise MinerÔ software, which was released in 1998, was received with enthusiasm. First-year revenue for the data mining product was $8 million making SAS Institute the clear market leader in this field, as verified by IDC. Products designed for building warehouses and making warehoused information accessible across the organization, SAS/Warehouse AdministratorÔ software and SAS/IntrnetÔ software, both experienced showed strong growth. More than 3,000 organisations now use SAS software for data warehousing projects and more than 400 of those projects are Web-enabled. Goodnight said, "Among our Fortune 1,000 customers, data warehousing has progressed to the point that their focus has moved beyond design and development to exploitation of the data through business intelligence and mining tools, and broad accessibility of the data." This maturation of the data-warehousing process fueled the interest in SAS Enterprise Miner software and SAS/Intrnet software, as well as the Institute's online analytical processing (OLAP) offering, SAS MDDB ServerÔ software. In 1998, SAS Institute licensed its 1,000th copy of the SAS MDDB Server. During the next year, the Institute is expanding its business solutions with enhanced CRM and balanced scorecard solutions, and products for human resources management and reporting and enterprise risk management. Another important move for SAS Institute will be the extension of its new open Information Delivery Architecture to all SASÒ software components and business solutions.