SAS Channel Program Goes Global

The VAR Guy has been trading email with SAS Institute for a few weeks, chatting back and forth about the role of VARs in the business intelligence market. And in a recent phone chat, SAS Channel Chief Miles Mahoney described how the company would push its partner program into international markets.

Admittedly, The VAR Guy is a bit late with this analysis due to an extended road trip that took him from Massachusetts to Vermont to New York and then Chicago and finally home to Long Island. He finally had time to organize his thoughts on Saturday.

According to Mahoney, SAS is enhancing its focus on partners that serve small and midsize businesses–particularly in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, South Africa, Russia, Japan, China, Australia and India. So far, SAS has signed more than 60 VARs in the Americas and more than a dozen others internationally.

In order to accelerate channel sales, SAS is offering specially priced bundles based on the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform. Nine different bundles, customized specifically for small to midsize businesses, include SAS data integration, business intelligence and analytics software. Also, SAS this month will launch an online Partner Demo Center, an on-demand hardware and software environment to showcase SAS via the Internet.

SAS will need to stay aggressive. Microsoft in recent months has sharpened its focus on business intelligence. And open source solutions like JasperSoft continue to attract interest from small and midsize businesses.