SAS Enterprise Computing Award for Government Applications goes to EPA.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2000

- Improving air quality by providing

access to critical information -

SAS Institute, the market leader in data warehousing and decision support, today honored the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the winner of the 2000 Enterprise Computing Award for Government Applications.

The EPA was recognized for its use of SAS(R) software in Web-enabling its Aerometric Information Retrieval System (AIRS) Graphics application. Dr. Jim Goodnight, SAS' president and CEO, presented the award to EPA representatives during the 25th annual SAS Users Group International (SUGI) conference here.

Containing billions of pollution values and related data, AIRS is the world's most extensive collection of air quality data. In 1994, the EPA selected SAS software to update the original AIRS Graphics application. Since then, the EPA has integrated SAS' Web-enablement capabilities to make AIRS data available on the Internet in the form of maps, charts, and tabular data.

Congress, states, foreign governments, municipalities, researchers and corporations regularly consult AIRS and the massive amounts of air quality information it contains. The EPA's goal is to make this information as easily accessible as possible. It is used to monitor and determine causes of poor air quality, and to improve areas with poor air quality. For example, municipal governments use AIRS data to monitor pollution caused by automobiles and develop programs - such as mass transit, carpooling and high-occupancy vehicle lanes - that help reduce harmful emissions.

"For the past 10 years, our data delivery programming team has used a variety of SAS software to make our data easy for people to access and analyze," said Tom Link, senior manager for advanced delivery systems in the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation. "We are already planning the next version [of AIRS], which will exploit dynamic HTML, Java and additional SAS software components. We know if we don't stay on the cutting edge, there are other sources of information out there."

In contrast to the original AIRS, the SAS software-based application provides interactive facilities for users with easy-to-use radio buttons, check boxes and graphics that respond to mouse clicks. Now with new Web-enablement capabilities, AIRS offers users a colorful interface, data extraction and mapping tools, input validation and flow control.

About Enterprise Computing Awards

Enterprise Computing Awards are given yearly to organizations that best illustrate the use of SAS software to meet business goals. Winners must demonstrate productivity gains, savings in cost or time savings, or otherwise show achievement of organization or business goals. Awards are given in three categories - commercial applications, government applications and academic applications. This year's awards were presented during the opening session of SUGI 25 at the Indiana Convention Center, where more than 3,000 SAS Institute customers from around the world are attending the conference.

About SAS Institute

SAS Institute, the world's largest privately held software company, is the leader in decision support and data warehousing, providing integrated enterprise information-delivery and e-business solutions. Founded in 1976, the Institute markets packaged business solutions for vertical industry and departmental applications, as well as an integrated suite of software tools and consulting services. These allow departments and agencies to transform the wide variety of data within their organizations into information that business users and researchers need to make better decisions. SAS software and services are used at more than 33,000 business, government and university sites in 115 countries. SAS Institute's 1999 revenues exceeded $1 billion.

Please visit SAS Institute's Web site: http://www.sas.com .

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