Improving customer service through expanding market penetration; SAS Institute Enhances S. American Government Service with Brazil Office.

CARY, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 30, 1996--SAS Institute Inc. today announced the opening of its newest office in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The announcement was made by Alberto "Al" Cordoba, General Manager of SAS Institute Brazil Ltda. The office will provide technical support, training, consulting, and sales and marketing support to customers in the rapidly expanding Brazilian IT market. SAS(R) software provides a platform- and database-independent environment for managing, organizing, and exploiting distributed data marts or data warehouses on client and server platforms with network and Internet access.

"SAS software is helping us developing a multi-terabyte data warehouse that attaches to various external data sources, loads the data warehouse, and exploits its information," said Henrique Andrade, CIO of Brazil's SERPRO, the information technology branch of the Brazilian government. "SAS Institute's expansion into Brazil will improve the flow of technical information and the levels of application development in our native language of Portuguese. It seems to me that SAS Institute believes in our country's future and potentiality. I expect the use of SAS software will increase as the national economy here continues to strengthen and grow."

IDC Research targets South America as the fastest growing IT market of all world regions through 1999. In 1995, IT spending in Latin America reached more than $12.4 billion. By 1999, the regional IT market is expected to reach more than $22.7 billion, representing 3.1 percent of the total worldwide demand. "Brazil has been experiencing a PC boom since 1991. It is estimated that by December 1996 the computer industry turnover will hit US $5.7 billion (1% of Brazil's GDP)," according to America Economia Annual Edition. Brazil has one of the fastest growing computer and software markets in the world. "In 1995, the top 50 IT companies grew at 14% in the average," according to Exame Informatica. "SAS Institute now has a thermometer in our country to better gauge what IT help is needed," said Fernando Nasser, Director of Information at IBGE (Brazilian Census Bureau). "SAS software will play a major role in supporting our goal of developing a high- level government decision-support system."

According to Cordoba, the opening of this office is a sign of the continued worldwide expansion of SAS Institute. We are speeding up the technology transfer to and increasing the support for the region already provided by our distributor, Soft Consultoria. "Brazil already has a strong domestic software industry. Among our goals is to work closely within that group to develop both human and technical capabilities."

Currently, Institute revenues from Brazil are in excess of $1.5 million, largely from government applications. The Institute anticipates revenues of approximately $2.5 million in 1996 and more than $4 million in 1997. Current government customers in Brazil include IBGE (Brazil's census bureau), SERPRO (the IT arm of Brazil's government), Petrobas (petroleum company of Brazil), and the Central Bank.

Now in its 20th anniversary year, SAS Institute is the world's ninth largest independent software company. The Institute's success is due in part to its continued investment in R&D, nearly $175 million in 1995, and more than $1 billion since its formation. This commitment to customer solution oriented R&D has resulted in the Institute being awarded the reader-selected 1996 Datamation magazine Data Warehousing Product of the Year, the 1996 DM Review magazine World Class Solutions for Data Warehousing award, and other industry honors.

SAS software - SAS Institute's flagship product - is an integrated suite of information delivery software for business decision making that addresses the unique needs of business users and IT departments in their support of the businesses. SAS software 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, SAS software is being used at nearly 30,000 business, government, and university sites worldwide.

Our Web Address is: http://www.unx.sas.com 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.

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