SAS sends SOS to channel

SAS Institute has decided to stick to the software business but use specialist channel partners to provide consultancy.

The company claims that total global revenues will be boosted 20 per cent by indirect partners this year. The e-intelligence and data warehousing company has tasked Chris Finch, head of alliances, with leading the new strategy in the UK. Finch said that the company is gearing up for a massive increase in IT spend in business intelligence. He said: "We're never going to have the capacity to fulfil all our consulting requirements. We're not going to be a large services company." SAS already has in place around 30 channel partnerships, which include hardware vendors, ASPs and resellers. However, it is consultancy companies that make up the largest portion. Idetica is a UK consultancy company that is in the final stages of formalising its business alliance with SAS. Nick Graham, CTO of Idetica, said the deal will see the consultancy concentrate on customer insight products for data warehousing and data mining.