Strong demand for industry-specific and packaged solutions fueled the 30th straight year of revenue growth for SAS Institute Inc., the business intelligence solutions provider.
Total revenue in 2006 was $1.9 billion, up 12 percent over $1.7 billion in 2005, Cary, NC-based SAS announced earlier this week. New software license revenue increased 20 percent, nearly twice the growth rate expected in the market this year.
“This year’s strong financial results validate the new course we set for the company several years ago when we began investing heavily in business and industry-focused applications built on an enterprise intelligence platform,” said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight, in a statement. “We had a good year. Industry and packaged business solutions were up 49 percent over 2005. One of our core strengths, powerful predictive analytics, continued to represent a significant stream of revenue at 19 percent growth. Sales of business intelligence and data integration/warehousing were each up by nearly 50 percent, demonstrating the importance of an integrated intelligence portfolio.”
SAS said it also saw strong increases in key vertical markets. The retail-based sector grew 18 percent as retailers continue to recognize the competitive advantage they gain from applications such as forecasting and optimization. Revenue from financial services jumped 17 percent, demonstrating strong growth in risk management and SAS’ dominance as a provider of Basel II compliance software.
Life sciences revenue grew 12 percent ? a result of organizations increasing investment in advanced analytics to improve business operations. In the public sector, where fraud detection solutions drove increases, revenue rose 10 percent. Cross-industry business solutions saw total gains of 45 percent because of high demand for marketing automation, performance management, and risk and IT management software.
As in 2005, SAS’ 2006 results remained globally balanced. The Americas accounted for 45 percent of total revenue; Europe, Middle East and Africa 45 percent; and Asia Pacific 10 percent.
“Based on the success of our packaged analytic applications and comprehensive enterprise intelligence platform, we expect to be a $2 billion company in 2007,” Mr. Goodnight said. “Additionally, we have set the stage for increased sales by implementing our first-ever partner channel.”
