Accenture plans to expand its business intelligence services through increased collaboration with SAS, a leading provider of business intelligence (BI) software and services.
The two companies plan to work together to enhance Accenture's SAS capabilities and will also team to enhance SAS software and product development by leveraging Accenture's industry expertise. This relationship will help Accenture deliver proven, repeatable solutions and create additional specialised capabilities to meet the increased demand for business intelligence services currently provided to clients through its Accenture Information Management Services (AIMS) organisation.
For SAS, the relationship will help accelerate growth of the company's global BI software revenue by leveraging Accenture's investment in sales, marketing, training, research and development, and expertise in industry and business processes.
"We are clearly seeing an increased demand for business intelligence services as organisations seek higher performance by collecting and analysing internal and external data," said Royce Bell, Chief Executive Officer of Accenture Information Management Services. "By striking a closer relationship with a market-leading enterprise business intelligence software vendor, we will be able to provide our clients with even more skills and scale than previously possible."
"Business intelligence solutions and services are clearly the next growth area in information technology. By leveraging our mutual strengths in software, services and business expertise, we will be better able to take advantage of global strategic BI opportunities," said Val Moodley, Product and Marketing Director at SAS Institute South Africa. "The breadth of SAS' enterprise intelligence platform and industry-focused solutions coupled with Accenture's ability to provide additional customisation, implementation services and global delivery, will allow customers to address key business and technology pains associated with information management more quickly and effectively."
Accenture and SAS have successfully teamed together over the last 10 years to provide business intelligence solutions in the analytics area where companies are seeking to get more insight and value out of their data. This expanded relationship will help provide a foundation for Accenture and SAS to further develop, market, sell and deliver global industry solutions for businesses via a comprehensive and united approach and set of resources.
According to Henry Morris, Group VP for Integration, Development and Application Strategies at IDC, a leading analyst firm: "This is a positive move for both companies, each with a demonstrated record of success in the field of analytics. SAS' commitment to industry solutions and an intelligence platform is complemented by Accenture's capabilities to explain the benefits to senior executives in the language of their vertical industry and to provide the skilled personnel required for delivery. The agreement should benefit both firms and should advance the penetration of analytics across industries and across regions."
Accenture's information management practice currently has approximately 10 000 professionals with skills, experience and knowledge related to how information management can support an organisation's strategic vision. Accenture professionals create and deliver complex solutions by drawing on functional and industry know-how, offerings and assets.
Accenture plans to expand its SAS business intelligence capabilities, specifically around the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform, which is the foundation for SAS' targeted business solutions that support enterprise intelligence, customer intelligence, financial intelligence, supply chain intelligence, as well as technology solutions for various vertical markets, such as financial services, life sciences, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and others.
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