Been some time since I wrote on SAS. Here are some key 2010 SAS events.

1) Launched Text Analysis officially at Predictive Analytics

SAS Text Analytics reveals new insights in stored documents

Uncovering opportunities and risks in social media, call centre logs, customer surveys

16 February 2010 –  SAS Text Analytics, now shipping from the leader in business analytics, automates the time-consuming process of reading individual documents and manually extracting relevant information. Organizations are in constant need of powerful tools to manage proliferating data from social networks, call centers, customer surveys, claims forms and sales returns. SAS’ award-winning analytics mine, interpret and structure information to reveal patterns, sentiment and relationships to improve decision making.

“Our customers use text analytics for customer intelligence, risk management and fraud management,” said Fiona McNeill, Global Analytics Product Marketing Manager at SAS. “Those involved in enterprise content, Web content, document, records and knowledge management, enterprise search, article research and online marketing measurement can easily access and reuse information with SAS Text Analytics.”

2) Managed MapReduce Integration with partner AsterData

Aster Data Expands Ecosystem for Advanced Analytics on Big Data Via SAS/ACCESS to Aster Data nCluster

Customers to gain richer, faster analytics on big data with SAS/ACCESS

San Carlos, Calif. – February 17, 2010 – Aster Data, a proven leader dedicated to providing the best data processing and data management platform for big data applications, today announced the availability of a SAS/ACCESS® interface engine for Aster Data nCluster, a Data-Application Server which is a highly scalable, massively parallel processing (MPP) data warehouse and analytics solution for big data. The SAS/ACCESS interface is one element of a broader partnership with SAS which strengthens interoperability by providing direct, native connectivity between SAS and Aster Data’s nCluster that provides SAS users with the ability to leverage Aster Data’s SQL-MapReduce for faster, deeper analytics on big data.

For SAS this is another step to broaden it’s already rich tech portfolio with emerging trends as well existing technologies in the BI world.

3) Announced  a strategic partnership with tech consultant Accenture. Accenture (which used to advertise with Tiger Woods ads) is a leading tech consultant

http://www.accenture.com/Global/Services/Alliances/AllianceSAS.htm

Accenture and SAS Plan to Jointly Develop, Implement and Manage Next-Generation Predictive Analytics Solutions

17 February 2010 –  Accenture and SAS plan to expand their strategic relationship by jointly developing, implementing and managing next-generation predictive analytics solutions, a first for both companies.

As part of the expansion, the two companies intend to jointly invest in the development of solutions focused on industry-specific predictive analytics applications, starting with the financial services, healthcare and public service sectors; as well as cross-industry solutions in the customer and enterprise management domains. They also plan to begin delivering sophisticated analytical capabilities as a managed service.

In forming the Accenture SAS Analytics Group, the companies intend to bring together Accenture’s extensive industry and functional business knowledge with SAS’s market-leading analytics solutions and capabilities to help companies and government organisations understand and implement predictive analytics solutions. Predictive analytics takes the information made available through standard analytics today and combines it with more sophisticated statistical modeling, forecasting and optimisation techniques to anticipate the impact on business outcomes.

With almost no sign of R and WPS slowing SAS down, with the rapid changes in upgrading its technology and stable base of developers as well as consumers SAS remains poised to remain on top of the analytics world for the reasonable forseeable time frame.