Business

Monday March 30, 2009

SAS Malaysia eyes more govt sector jobs

By LEE KIAN SEONG


Stimulus packages, renewed focus on quality present opportunities

BUSINESS intelligence and analytics specialist SAS Institute Sdn Bhd (SAS Malaysia) is looking for more business from the government.

SAS Malaysia, a subsidary of US-based SAS Institute Inc, provides a range of business intelligence services, from data integration and data warehouse management solutions to end-user business intelligence tools and enterprise applications.

SAS Malaysia managing director Jimmy Cheah said the Government’s economic stimulus packages and renewed focus on the quality of public services have opened up many business opportunities in the public sector.

“We have seen the effort by the Government to improve the performance of government institutions in the last six to 12 months,” he told StarBiz in an interview.

Cheah expects the government segment to contribute 40% to the company’s revenue this year, from 30% previously, with the balance coming from the private sector.

“We are on track to achieve our double-digit growth target for revenue this year based on growth from the government segment and through securing new customers,” he said.

SAS Institute, via SAS Malaysia, has operated in the country for 23 years and its clients include Tesco Stores, F&N, Coca-Cola, Penang Adventist Hospital, KPJ Hospitals and Malaysia Airlines.

SAS Institute posted US$2.26bil in revenue last year, up 5.1% from 2007.

On the impact of the economic crisis, Cheah said customers were being more cautious.

“Budgets are being reviewed by customers but the size of the market is still big and it is in a growing space,” he said, adding that it was important to look for new areas of growth to ride out the economic slowdown.

SAS Malaysia’s major customers are from the banking and telecommunications industries, which contributed close to 50% of revenue last year.

Its other clients include those from the aviation, retail and healthcare sectors.

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