Event
Summary
Business intelligence and data warehousing software vendor Sagent
(NASDAQ: SGNT) has announced a strategic agreement with SAS Institute
(the largest privately held software company in the world), a strong presence
in e-intelligence, data mining and data warehousing, and best known for
its statistical software. Under the agreement, Sagent will integrate and
license select SAS analytic and customer relationship management (CRM)
software within its business intelligence solutions. The target market
for these SAS-enhanced offerings from Sagent will be the mid-market (generally
defined as companies with revenues up to $750 million). That market will
include sectors such as credit unions, community banks, and select property
and casualty insurance companies, among others.
As
a result of this agreement, Sagent will offer SAS' world-renowned data
mining and CRM software as part of its business intelligence solution.
"SAS' credibility in the marketplace, as well as its broad and deep analytic
and e-intelligence offerings, made it the clear choice as a partner and
a provider of analytics and CRM solutions to integrate with Sagent's existing
offerings," said Bob Flynn, senior vice president, marketing and strategy,
Sagent. "We are pleased that SAS and Sagent have agreed to work together
on this important initiative."
Market
Impact
One
of SAS Institute's biggest problems has been its lack of visibility and
name recognition beyond Global 2000 companies. The majority of business
professionals have worked with SAS software at some point in their career,
but usually aren't exactly sure what SAS does as a company. The agreement
with Sagent supports SAS' objective of developing additional channels
for sales and distribution to accelerate revenue growth and increase market
presence by reaching market sectors that it has not traditionally served.
SAS has stated that they will continue to focus the efforts of its direct
sales force on expanding its presence among large enterprise customers.
According
to Graeme Woodley, SAS' senior vice president for business development
and channel operations, "Sagent has a proven track record of providing
business intelligence and data warehousing solutions to mid-markets, enabling
their customers to streamline operations and improve decision-making.
Our agreement with Sagent brings powerful SAS analytical solutions to
the vertical mid-markets served by Sagent." The agreement between SAS
and Sagent covers the Americas and Europe, and includes development assistance
for the integration of SAS Enterprise Miner and other software,
as well as training for the Sagent sales force in the positioning of the
new combined offerings. The integrated offerings are scheduled for release
in the first half of 2001.
User
Recommendations
Customers evaluating e-CRM and business intelligence solutions should
keep an eye on developments between SAS and Sagent, with the potential
of including their offerings on a long list of candidates for business
intelligence and/or customer relationship management technology selections.
SAS offers some of the most powerful statistical software in the world,
and combined with Sagent's existing offerings should provide compelling
vertical solutions. Sagent has long been interested in vertical markets
as a differentiator (see Sagent
Technology Teams for Telco e-Business, for one example), and will
likely continue in that direction.
Potential
customers should question Sagent during the vendor interview process as
to its support for the required vertical, and, if required, possibly explore
options to co-develop a new vertical that fits their need. (Obviously,
the customer should receive pricing discounts and other concessions from
the vendor for their assistance in the development of the new solution.)