The VAR Guy

From Best Buy to Wal-Mart, big companies use business intelligence (BI) software to drive new revenue and market opportunities. Now, those high-end market solutions seem to be pushing down — through the IT channel — into small and midsize businesses. Skeptical? Check out this anecdotal information from SAS Institute.

Well-known in BI circles, SAS Institute says small and midsize businesses account for more than 20 percent of the company’s customer base. The VAR Guy tracked SAS Institute quite a bit in 2007 when Miles Mahoney was building and leading the company’s channel progream.

But when Mahoney left SAS, our resident blogger wondered if the company was really committed to small and midsize customers — and the channel partners who serve them.

Coming Into Focus

The VAR Guy went digging for answers, and found a rather reassuring fact: According to SAS’s searchable partner database, the company has more than 560 channel and technology partners.

Moreover, SAS Institute’s product portfolio includes SAS BI for Midsize Business — which targets companies with 500 or fewer employees or $500 million or less in revenue. SAS’s current SMB customers include ImpactRX, Catalina Marketing, Oxford Global Resources and International Planning and Research.

At Catalina Marketing, for instance, BI software allows the company to plan supermarket checkout coupon campaigns.

Still skeptical about BI in small business? This article highlights five things smaller businesses don’t know about BI.

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