Advertisement

SAS transforms raw numbers into profitable data

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0

Statisticians are essential problem-solvers in society. Their ability to gather and analyse numerical data helps decision makers in areas such as government, manufacturing, transportation, health, economics, and the environment.

Crunching numbers has made academic and long-time American Statistical Association member James Goodnight a billionaire and a major player in the information technology sector.

Mr Goodnight owns about two-thirds of business intelligence specialist SAS Institute, the world's largest privately held software company. It has about 9,000 employees in 202 countries and more than 40,000 installations around the globe.

The North Carolina-based firm, with annual revenues exceeding US$1 billion, is a market leader in data warehousing and data mining software. The software is used to collect, manage, and analyse the huge amounts of information stored on large computers and databases.

Despite a lingering economic slowdown that has meant heavy losses for many IT firms, SAS posted a 4.4 per cent increase in revenues to US$1.18 billion. This also marked an unbroken string of 26 consecutive years of revenue growth.

Mr Goodnight and fellow North Carolina State University graduates John Sall, Anthony Barr and Jane Helwig developed software that helped farmers work with statistics. Their program was called 'Statistical Analysis System'. They then formed SAS, in 1976.

Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2-3x faster
1.1x
220 WPM
Slow
Normal
Fast
1.1x