Advanced Integrated Manufacturing Solutions Joins SAS Institute's Quality Partner Program.

CARY, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 24, 1997--SAS Institute Inc. today announced that Advanced Integrated Manufacturing Solutions Corp. (AIMS), a Chapel Hill, N.C.-based consulting firm, has been accepted into the Institute's Quality Partner Program.

Founded in 1997, AIMS has four principal partners, one of whom has more than 22 years of experience in SAS(R) software development. The other three partners have advanced engineering degrees and more than 35 years of combined manufacturing experience. "This combination of industry experience and SAS expertise enables AIMS to move data all the way from the shop floor to managers' and analysts' screens," said Perry Smith, the company's president.

"The benefit to the customer is both immediate and compelling. Using a single vendor, customers can implement complex turnkey solutions in even the most demanding manufacturing environment. The business alliance between AIMS and SAS Institute provides clients with the most current and effective options for system implementation," continued Smith.

AIMS develops integrated information and control systems in manufacturing environments. It also provides consulting and support services such as requirements definitions, feasibility studies, pilots, user training, and system maintenance. Recent projects include real-time statistical process control, equipment interfacing and data collection, Cp/Cpk trending, shop-floor control, cell control, automated material handling, maintenance management, and legacy system interfaces.

SAS Institute's Quality Partner Program is designed to assist and support third-party organizations whose primary business is providing consulting services using SAS software, an integrated suite of information delivery software for business decision making. Currently, more than 250 organizations are SAS Quality Partners worldwide.

"Our goal in supporting this program is to identify those firms who provide high-quality consulting support and who are dedicated to SAS software," said Debbie Puigcerver, associate business development specialist for the Quality Partner Program at SAS Institute. "AIMS has targeted the IT issues facing today's manufacturing firms with powerful SAS software tools. We are pleased that the company has joined the Quality Partner Program."

To be eligible for the Quality Partner Program, consulting companies must have annual revenues of less than $5 million, provide three customer references, and obtain sponsorship by an appropriate SAS Institute employee. In addition, they must meet the program's training requirements. For organizations that meet the qualifications of the program, SAS Institute provides a special software- and training-pricing package, use of the Quality Partner logo, and customer referrals as appropriate.

Now in its 21st year, SAS Institute is one of the top ten largest independent software vendors in the world, and is the largest privately held software company. The leading provider of data warehousing and decision-support software, the Institute has won the reader-selected 1996 and 1997 Datamation magazine Data Warehousing Product of the Year award and Software Magazine's Editor's Choice award for decision-support software.

SAS Institute provides an integrated suite of information delivery tools that allow companies to transform the wide variety of data within their organization into information that business users need to make decisions. To make data useful, SAS software collects data from almost every platform and data format, cleans and transforms data into information that users will understand, and stores that information in an open and efficient data warehouse structure. To explore that information, SAS software includes OLAP, query and reporting, EIS, data mining, analysis, data visualization, and application-development interfaces. SAS software is client/server and Web enabled. SAS Institute also delivers business solutions for financial consolidation and reporting, clinical trials analysis, oil and gas analysis and IT service management. Currently, SAS software and business solutions are being used at more than 30,000 business, government and university sites in more than 120 countries.

For more information about the Quality Partner Program, contact SAS Institute Inc. at 919/677-8000. For more information about Advanced Integrated Manufacturing Solutions Corp., contact Perry Smith at 919/968-7879.

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