Increased demand for big data analytics and data visualization amongst Malaysian businesses in 2014 were among the top drivers for SAS’ record revenue growth in Malaysia. SAS posted a 29% increase in total revenue amounting RM63 million and a 13% growth in total software revenue amounting RM46.3 million. Globally SAS recorded its 39th consecutive year of growth with US$3.09 billion, up 5.1 percent in constant currency (2.3 percent US dollars) over 2013.
“SAS is the global leader in big data analytics, and we plan to stay there,” said Andrew Tan, Managing Director of SAS Malaysia. “We offer the most powerful big data analytics and data visualization software on the market today and industry leaders have chosen SAS to help them tackle big data.”
Among SAS’ clients are PETRONAS, CIMB, RHB, Maybank, Bank Negara, Maxis, U Mobile, MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems, PROTON, AirAsia, UEM, Tesco, Padiberas, LHDN, Department of Statistics, Mass Rapid Transit Corporation, Port of Tanjung Pelepas, Western Digital, AIA, Prudential and Sunway Education Group.
Industry-centric partnering
SAS’ strong partner ecosystem is a consistent factor in the company’s success, and last year influenced 65 percent of new sales. In 2014, SAS announced its partnership with Silverlake group, Asia Pacific’s largest IT solutions provider to introduce big data analytics solutions to banks in Malaysia in areas such as fraud, risk and data management.
A Best Place to Work
SAS also attributes its financial success to its renowned corporate culture. SAS ranks No. 4 on FORTUNE magazine’s list of Best Companies to Work For in the US while in Malaysia, SAS was named one of the Best Companies to Work For in Asia in 2013 and 2014 by HR Asia.
“95 percent of our assets drive out the gate every evening. It’s my job to maintain a work environment that keeps those people coming back every morning, “says Andrew Tan, Managing Director of SAS Malaysia. “SAS employees are among the industry’s most loyal. In the software business, yearly turnover of 20 percent is the norm. At SAS, it’s about 9 percent.”
2015 outlook
SAS leads in business analytics market share (per IDC) and is a leader in agile business intelligence according to Forrester, and is poised to remain at the top. IDC recently identified SAS as the top supplier, owning 35.4 percent market share of the 2013 advanced and predictive analytics market, more than twice that of the next-closest competitor. In addition, the IDC report ranked SAS among the top five providers with the highest growth rates in advanced and predictive analytics software.
“Currently, market drivers like the cloud, big data and the Internet of Things are revolutionizing the software industry,” says Tan. “As billions of data-generating devices become connected, the raw data they generate becomes collectively valuable. E-commerce companies can increase their share-of-wallet dramatically if they were to combine email responses, online browsing behavior as well as location data gained from their mobile app to personalize every offer at the right time and right place. Utilities companies can reduce fuel consumption by analysing all its machine data including smart meters in real-time and pass on the benefits to its customers in smart pricing plans. Governments and NGO’s can predict and respond to natural disasters by analyzing historical patterns and social media data.”
This year, SAS anticipates continued growth in BI/data visualization, data management and Hadoop, customer intelligence, risk management, particularly fraud and security intelligence. In 2013, Malaysia was ranked as the sixth most vulnerable to cybercrime alongside countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, India and Indonesia by the Sophos Security Threat Report. Cybercrime in Malaysia increased to 10,636 reported cases in 2013 from 9,986 cases in the previous year as reported by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
Tan says, “With the increasing number of financial fraud cases reported in Malaysia, local banks must strengthen its security measures to protect its customer’s financial assets or risk reputational damage. With SAS’ Fraud Management solution, banks can detect unusual transaction patterns and intercept fraud before it happens. SAS has the lowest ratio of false positives. Out of ten potentially fraudulent transactions identified, four will prove positive.”
Free software and university partnerships aim to address shortage of Data Scientists
To address the shortage of Data Scientists in Malaysia, the company launched SAS Analytics U, an initiative that offers free SAS software to university students. SAS is currently taught at 21 education institutions across Malaysia and SAS has announced collaborations with Sunway University and HELP College of Arts and Technology (HELF CAT) to offer joint degree programs. The programs will introduce new modules in Business Intelligence, Statistics, SAS Programming, Data Mining and Predictive Modelling into both university’s existing degree programmes.
Ends
About SAS
SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions, SAS helps customers at more than 75,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®.
