How SAS is empowering customers to transform data into intelligence

How has data analytics evolved over the past few years?
Over the past few years, we have witnessed the acceleration of digital transformation across all industries and verticals. However, as organisations need to digitally transform with agility and speed, they require the flexibility and scalability of the cloud and an analytics platform that is accessible to users of all skill levels.

We have also entered the era of real-time analytics. The ability to analyse data from varied datasets for both real-time and predictive insights that inform strategic decision-making gives organisations a competitive edge they need to adapt to today’s pace of change. Most importantly, it can provide unparalleled levels of customer experience personalisation, which is becoming crucial in determining which companies will win in the market.

At the same time, with the increasingly widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics, the importance of responsible innovation has never been greater.

How do you empower customers to transform data into intelligence?
To drive innovation, make data-driven decisions and create competitive advantages, organisations need data and analytics, which they must put to work in efficient, and creative ways. Modern organisations generate huge amounts of data via operations, products and services, and also have access to significant open data sources.

SAS enables customers to transform large volumes of data into actionable intelligence by providing them with a portfolio of platforms and solutions, deployable either on premises or on cloud, that can process, analyse and extract the required insights.

With the integration of AI into our platform and solutions, we optimise every phase of the analytics life cycle, from data to discovery to deployment. The results are greater operational efficiencies, the opening of new growth opportunities and increased competitiveness.

How are you democratising analytics across wide range of industries? Share some success stories.
We believe that analytics and AI are crucial for pursuing innovative solutions to traditional problems. Therefore, the whole organisation’s workforce must have a solid grasp of analytics and AI in general.

The greater an employee’s level of comprehension, the more valuable questions they will ask, which results in the development of exciting new concepts. It ultimately comes down to using technology to think collectively on a broader scale. One of the regional success stories comes from Emirates Health Services (EHS), which democratised data-based decision-making by removing traditional barriers.

Another successful project was with The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) which selected SAS Visual Analytics coupled with SAS Data Management, to help the department augment its reporting process and explore all its data spread across over 40 data sources.

Share your plans for the year ahead.
We had a strong closing for the past year, and we are excited about what 2023 holds for SAS. We serve a broad spectrum of clients in different industries like banking, government, telco, healthcare and manufacturing.

Some examples are helping banks fight financial crimes and reduce fraud, driving predictive analytics to empower governments to fulfill the needs of their citizens, improving patient care and saving lives with enhanced healthcare analytics and enabling merchants to keep the shelves stocked through smarter demand planning.

We are assisting companies in reorienting, reinventing and redefining industries as we know them, and we will continue to support our customers in building a better tomorrow, with the ethical use of AI.

Ravi Acharya is the managing director and regional head – Middle East, Turkiye and Africa at SAS

Read: SAS partners with Moro Hub to elevate AI-based industry solutions in Dubai