SAS Helps the Oregon Department of Corrections Successfully Manage Data.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

CARY, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 2004

Oregon Corrections System Uses SAS to Streamline Information

Management, Increasing Productivity by 25 Percent

Knowing where and how tax dollars are being spent on state correctional programs is a pressing concern for many voters, legislatures and county budgeting offices. Under such scrutiny, the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) chose SAS(R) software to streamline its information management process and provide a foundation for sharing knowledge throughout the state corrections system. SAS, the leader in business intelligence, offers powerful data warehousing software that makes it simple for the ODOC to improve system efficiencies through better collection and sharing of inmate data, as well as analysis of the effectiveness of various prison programs.

"SAS provides us with the scalability and flexibility we need to not only address the success criteria defined by our legislature, but also to implement programs that we can prove benefit community safety by changing offender behavior," said Laura Buring, database analyst with the ODOC. "Prison programs are expensive, which is why we need SAS to help determine which ones are working and which ones are not. SAS helps us evaluate how well we are achieving our goal of breaking the cycle of criminality."

Continued Buring, "After evaluating a number of other options, we selected SAS because it allows us to do everything we need to do - from gathering and housing data to analyzing it for measurable results. In a short amount of time we have seen productivity gains above 25 percent in our Research and Evaluation unit, as well as increased accuracy in our reporting capabilities."

By using SAS, ODOC is able to prove how effective its community programs are to the state, as well as justify the cost of its prison programs as defined by the legislature. SAS' data warehousing technology has enabled ODOC to not only better monitor its prison programs, but has also laid the groundwork for better inter-agency collaboration. "SAS' data warehousing software has enabled us to access data from anywhere and bring it all together in one cohesive system," continued Buring. "Doing so gives us the ability to evaluate offender information and also look internally at administrative issues and plan accordingly. Now we are able to achieve a more well-rounded view of the corrections system than ever before."

"With our software, the Oregon Department of Corrections is achieving quality results faster, which enables them to spend more time strategically planning their programs," said Don Hatcher, vice president of technology strategy at SAS. "SAS has a proven reputation for providing the full spectrum of technologies required to help organizations make precise business decisions. The investment benefits derived by using SAS continue to grow over time, positioning companies for long-term success."

SAS data warehousing gives businesses an integrated, holistic view of their entire organization - from suppliers to customers to internal operations. It serves as the foundation for producing strategic insights in a low-risk manner. SAS ETLQ (extraction, transformation, load integrated with data quality) is a data integration offering that enables customers to retrieve data from any source and is a critical part of the overall data warehousing process. More information about SAS' data warehousing capabilities can be found at http://www.sas.com/technologies/dw/index.html.

Jeff Babcock, SAS vice president of U.S. Public Sector sales, added, "The Oregon Department of Corrections' success with SAS illustrates the ability to implement a solution in a fraction of the time normally required. This time savings is extremely important because it allows the government to focus on improving mission performance and delivering efficient and effective services."

The vision and dedication of the Oregon Department of Corrections to achieve a quick, results-driven solution fit perfectly with its decision to pursue the SAS Pilot Program, which is designed to deliver immediate, guaranteed results that can be seen at each step of the implementation process. Additional information about SAS' Pilot Program is available at http://www.sas.com/news/preleases/120303/news1.html. The Oregon Department of Corrections will be speaking at SAS' annual Government Best Practices event on May 5 in Washington, D.C. More details can be found at www.sas.com/govmay5.

About SAS

SAS is the market leader in providing a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create true enterprise intelligence. SAS solutions are used at more than 40,000 sites - including 90 percent of the Fortune 500 - to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organizations forward. SAS is the only vendor that completely integrates leading data warehousing, analytics and traditional BI applications to create intelligence from massive amounts of data. For nearly three decades, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know(R). Visit us at www.sas.com.

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