Sas, a leader in business analytics is ranked number three on Fortune’s Best Places to Work in the US. The company has recorded double digit revenue growth in 2011 (12 per cent). Sas India is not an exception. It holds 50 per cent market share of the Indian analytics market and 30 per cent globally.
Lowest attrition rate, no lay-offs for over 15 years in India and the company is growing at a rate of 12 per cent year-on -year. Sas has set up a new R & D centre in Pune. This is its third such centre following the ones in Carry, USA and China. On the backdrop of recession in the US, the company has achieved a record revenue of $2.72 billion (approx. Rs 13,544 crore) in 2011.
Sudipta K Sen, regional director - South East Asia, CEO & MD, Sas Institute (India) Pvt Ltd shares his thoughts with Hrishikesh Joshi. Edited excerpts:
SAS has been ranked No 3 on the Fortune '2012 100 Best Companies to Work For' list. What makes your employees work with the company over the years?
SAS has been prominent on Fortune’s list for 15 consecutive years – since its beginning. In the year 2011, it has been ranked as the No.1 company to work for list. Sas has only 2 per cent attrition rate and I am proud to say that we never had job cuts since it was established.
Even during the 2008-09 recession, when the big IT companies had lay-offs, we were stable. We are growing at 12 per cent per year and have reached $2.72 billion revenue. Sas US and South America contributes to 46 per cent of our market share. Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) contributes 42 per cent and Asia Pacific 12 per cent. We have recorded double digit growth in 2011.
Why only 12% from Asia-Pacific?
Each market has its own dynamics. The size of the economy plays an important role in analytics and adoption of analytics within the DNA of the country is also equally important.
In India, I have seen a phenomenal growth in the last five years. We are in a growth phase and lots of opportunities are coming up. There is a huge demand for Sas business Analytics. Sas expects healthy growth in the future. Also, we reinvest 23 per cent of our profits in research and development.
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What is your outlook about the analytics market in India?
Trends in India are similar to global trends. Use of analytics comes into the picture when you have availability and size of digital data. In a country like India where the population is one billion plus, creation of data is huge.
For eg, in the telecom sector, there are more than 800 million users and most of the operators are sitting up with more than 100 million plus customers. Analytics is not only useful for the folks who are sitting in glass house, but also where customer interaction takes place. With changing business dynamics, more and more organizations globally are actively looking at analytics as a key part of their decision making.
How Sas India is performing in the analytics market?
Sas India holds over 50 per cent market share of analytics. The sectors such as banking and financial services, insurance, telecom, manufacturing and clinical research widely use analytics. as' powerhouse analytics help companies to identify areas to improve marketing by identifying bottlenecks in budgeting, planning and resource allocation.
In addition to that analytics help build stronger customer relationships and increase profitability. In India, we have two separate entities, viz Sas Inidia Pvt Ltd and Sas R & D which is in Pune. It is the only R & D centre of Sas after US and China. Sas India is for revenue earning and R & D is for developing products and solutions.
Globally, there is a huge competition for Sas in the areas like Business Intelligence. Some major ITcompanies have made acquisitions for BI like Oracle-Hyperion, SAP-Busines Objects, IBM- Cognos etc. Being a long time leader in BI, how is Sas looking at these developments?
These acquisitions took place only because there is a market potential for analytics. Recently, Sas has also acquired Assetlink to support other solutions in the market. It will help us to to manage business and access analytics.
Sas holds 30 per cent market share worldwide and 50 per cent in India. Sas is just not into technology. We have solutions available at one place for various sectors like telecom, banking, manufacturing which our competitors do not have.
