Today we visited SAS in Carry on their 900-acre headquarters campus. SAS stands for statistical analytical software and they are the leaders in advanced analytical software and have a commanding 36.2% market share. One unique aspect of SAS is that they do not sell their software, but rather lease it so that the customers can just switch it out when a new version comes out and no one gets left behind with an out of date version. They have more than 13,000 employees worldwide in 55 different countries. SAS has had a sustained revenue growth for the past 36 years and in 2012-2013 they had revenue of $2.871 billion. The company also gives its employees incredible benefits, but not for not reason, this is a business strategy and they seem to be all about strategies. One area that SAS prides themselves on is their very low employee turnover, the industry average is 15.5% and SAS average is 4%. They have been voted the world’s best multi-international workplace and one of the best companies to work for.
The mission of SAS is to provides its many clients with the best analytical software that they can get, as well as pride themselves on culture and a set of values. They value approachability, innovation, swift and agile thinking and strategizing, trustworthy employees and are customer-driven.
SAS has many customers and they are all using the software at different levels, from big data to smaller amounts. Some of the big name customers are Kohls, the Federal Government, Ralph Lauren, the Coast Guard, Playboy and American Eagle. SAS has worked themselves into the elite status and have obtained some of the biggest names in the retail market and even the government to use their product.
The customers value the highest quality of analytical software from SAS. The customers also value innovation, anti-money laundering, and the longevity of employees. For example a retail-clothing store will use the software to tell it when to have a sale and how much to mark items down and for how long. If SAS does not provide the best software, then these companies could potentially lose substantial amounts, because they had a sale when it was not the proper time or financial time.
The results of what SAS has done are vast, from having a revenue over two billion to wining countless awards for being such a favorable company to work for. They provide benefits on campus such as childcare, recreation and fitness centers, health care and pharmacy, work-life center, cafes and coffee bars, spa, massages and more. These have all helped SAS reach where it is, but have also being a pivotal business strategy for them.
The plan for SAS is to develop solutions for the changes in technology through visual analytics and making them more user friendly. They have to adapt to new things such as iPhones and having to create apps for customers to use on their phones and tablets. They also have to deal with todays customers wanting the easiest to use software that someone who knows no statistics could easily use and not have to waist time learning how to use.
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