Endorsing SAS Institute Inc.'s enterprise computing offerings on the popular PC platform; Microsoft Declares SAS(r) System Windows 95 Compliant.

CARY, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 1996--SAS Institute Inc., a Microsoft Development partner and provider of the market's only front-end to back-end data warehousing solution, today announced that the SAS(r) System has received Microsoft's Windows 95 logo certification. The designation validates SAS software - the Institute's flagship suite of business analysis software - as a way to help organizations reach smart business decisions quickly using any of the popular Windows platforms.

"Because the SAS System is implemented consistently across platforms, we are enabling organizations that have made a strategic decision to use Microsoft's operating systems to select the Windows environment best suited to their needs," said Lynne Harris, SAS Institute's desktop marketing manager. "They have the comfort of knowing the full SAS System suite, with its breadth of applications and interoperability among environments, complies completely with Microsoft's user interface guidelines. And those benefits are available across all Windows platforms - Windows 95, Windows NT and Win32s."

The SAS System and Windows 95 In Action

Textron Financial Corp., a commercial finance company based in Providence, R.I., has nearly 500 production programs running the SAS System on Windows NT servers and Windows 95 client workstations. All of the company's corporate planning processes as well as its financial reporting, lease tax depreciation modules and daily general ledger interfaces - more than 30 production jobs in all - are scheduled to run at night on Windows.

"SAS software has made Textron Financial Corp.'s migration to Windows 95 essentially painless," said Chuck LoCurto, Textron Financial's director of corporate systems. "The SAS System's multiple engine architecture has allowed us to easily migrate divisions from OS/2. All Providence-based databases and software were upgraded to Windows 95 and the SAS System in December. ...By the end of April, all TFC employees will be running Windows 95."

Textron Financial Corp. represents a growing number of SAS Institute customers already enjoying quantifiable business benefits from using SAS software in the Windows environment.

"Performance improvements have been remarkable," LoCurto noted. "We are experiencing improvements in every single SAS process in the Windows 95 environment. We have significantly reduced the time required to run our processes and reports. This new environment has greatly increased Textron Financial Corp.'s capacity to process data in a timely fashion."

Textron Financial Corp. now produces reports in a minute that used to take 15 minutes under the previous configuration of Win32s. Portfolio projections that once took 10 hours to complete now take only 11/2 hours. Running a strategic 6-year plan, once an 11/2-hour job, now takes 12 minutes. The new system whittled the process of producing daily financial reports from three hours to 40 minutes. And running financial statements, which took nearly two hours before, now takes just six minutes.

With a growing list of its customers implementing data warehouses, especially on the desktop - and employing Windows environments in particular - SAS Institute has enjoyed continual revenue growth. Worldwide revenues for the Cary, N.C.,-based software maker climbed 17 percent to $562.4 million in 1995, marking the Institute's 19th consecutive year of double-digit growth. The Institute anticipates continued strong revenue growth through this year and beyond.

"The popularity of data warehousing propelled us over the half-billion dollar mark in 1995 - and nearly a third of the Institute's new software revenue (money from first-year license fees, not renewal fees) was derived from Windows software alone," Harris said. "By platform, the desktop continues to bring in a huge portion of new business for us. Altogether, PC software rose 36 percent from 1994 to 1995."

An Enterprise Solution

For supporting enterprise-wide computing, the SAS System for Windows 95 provides organizations with the information delivery capabilities necessary to turn its corporate data into meaningful information and deliver it to the people who need it to make effective business decisions. The software gives users access to data from a variety of sources, allows them to manage the data and perform virtually any type of analysis on the data, then lets them present the resulting business information graphically or in text- based reports.

These capabilities are the hallmark of the SAS System on all platforms - from mainframes to midrange computers, to personal computers and UNIX workstations. Along with linking across platforms, the SAS System for Windows 95 exploits interoperability among various applications through support for such features as ODBC and OLE.

Now in its 20th anniversary year, SAS Institute is among the world's 10 largest independent software companies. SAS Institute's flagship product, the SAS System, is an integrated suite of information delivery software for business decision making.

The SAS System addresses the unique needs of business users and IT departments in their support of the businesses. The SAS System includes capabilities and tools for data warehousing including managing, organizing and exploiting the warehouse; business intelligence including EIS, online analytical processing, application development and decision support; applied analysis including technical data analysis, data mining and neural networking; and business solutions for applications such as financial consolidation and reporting, clinical trials analysis, and IT service management. Currently, more than 29,400 businesses, government agencies and universities worldwide are using SAS software products.

SAS is a registered trademark of SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA All other tradenames referenced are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: SAS Institute Inc., Cary

Beverly Brown or Les Hamashima, 919/677-8000

or

The Weber Group

Patty Williams or Kathy Keating, 617/661-7900