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NORTH
Carolina-based business intelligence software developer
SAS will double its workforce this year in response to
the growing worldwide demand by clients that need
service attention.
In a
recent media briefing, SAS executive vice president for
operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and
Asia-Pacific Mikael Hagstrom told reporters that SAS
Philippines will beef up its 100 engineers to 200. This
is a response to demand by customers around the world.
“We have
found strength here in the Philippines not only because
the people are well educated and very good in speaking
English. They are also quite willing to travel,” said
Hagstrom.
“SAS is
also encouraged by the strong performance of SAS
Philippines which has contributed to the strong
foundation of the company in its global operations,”
Hagstrom added.
He
stressed that SAS Philippines won all the major data
warehousing projects in the country last year.
The SAS
competence center is focused on developing customer
intelligence, risk intelligence and financial
intelligence solutions for the various clients of SAS
around the world. Aside from the Philippines, the only
other competence center of SAS is in
India.
Hagstrom
stressed that the competence centers give the company
the capability to replicate a project from one country
to another, which gives the company the opportunity to
pursue remote consulting.
“Remote
consulting is the key element of our business. Our focus
is on software. What we have developed are industry
solutions, which are frameworks for developing
repeatable business solutions. If we have a project in
the Philippines, we can recreate that in other
countries,” he said.
Hagstrom
said the competence centers in the Philippines and India
are part of the company’s road map to create a robust
framework for helping customers around the world.
“In
other words, there will be a lot of innovative thinking
here in the Philippines to help SAS maximize its
operations in the global field,” Hagstrom said.
Hagstrom
said a major growth driver for SAS Philippines is the
wide acceptance of business intelligence to be part of
the IT infrastructure. He said the Philippine enterprise
landscape is very open in including business
intelligence solutions to make them more competitive.
“Things are moving forward and faster in terms of
applying business intelligence,” he said.
SAS has
formed partnerships with University of the Philippines
and De La Salle University to train their students in
SAS business intelligence solutions. Under the program,
math and engineering students undergo training in SAS
software solutions. |
