SAS confident of growth, to be fueled by govt sector

• Public sector business analytics industry in Malaysia estimated to be worth RM26mil in 2013
• SAS signs and certifies 10 new system integrators to meet growing demand for its services

BUSINESS analytics software and services provider SAS Malaysia said that it recorded a strong 20% growth in sales within the government sector in 2012 as compared to 2011, without giving actual figures.
 
With the overall public sector business analytics industry in Malaysia estimated to be worth RM26 million (US$8.5 million) in 2013, SAS expects to continue its strong performance and strengthen its business presence in the country as a segment leader, the company said in a statement.
 
Further to this, SAS has signed and certified 10 new system integrators in a bid to meet the growing demand for its services and deliver more successful projects in 2013, it added.
 
Many government agencies and bodies in Malaysia have leveraged upon SAS’ expertise to enhance their core operational tasks, said Andrew Tan (pic), managing director of SAS Malaysia.
 
“We have worked closely with various agencies in order to help them achieve greater operational efficiencies,” he said.
 
The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) of Malaysia with the help of SAS’ analytics solutions managed to drastically reduce the amount of time required to analyze the sprawling amounts of data that it has amassed, SAS Malaysia said.
 
From a previous delivery standard of two weeks, the IRB is now able to prepare complex reporting documents in as few as three days. This has greatly improved the IRB’s ability to respond to requests from various stakeholders for accurate data efficiently, the company claimed.
 
Similarly, the Malaysia Deposit Insurance Corporation (known locally as Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia or PIDM) was able to reduce waiting time for routine data collection and analysis procedures from three weeks to just two days now using SAS solutions.
 
This significantly bolstered PIDM’s risk assessment efficiency and reliability, SAS Malaysia said.
 
“With the strong growth recorded on the sale of analytics solutions to the Malaysian Government, we are poised to grow to new heights on the back of robust demand for SAS Malaysia’s powerful analytics tools both from the public and private sector,” Tan said.
 
SAS claimed its analytics tools are scalable and applicable to even broad-ranging and highly complex economic and population datasets. As such, the company expects that there will be a growing interest in the use of powerful, comprehensive analytics solutions to synthesize key predictions and outcomes from the vast amounts of untapped economic data that currently reside in warehouses and data archives.
 
Moving forward SAS intends to share its extensive experience from collaborating with other countries with government agencies in Malaysia in the areas of agriculture, elections and also service efficiency.
 
One example in which SAS has gained valuable know-how in the application of its analytics solutions to specific governance needs is its partnership with the Hong Kong Government’s renowned Efficiency Unit.
 
As the central point of contact between the public and government agencies, the 1823 Call Centre handles about 2.65 million calls and 98,000 emails every year. Using SAS’s Business Analytics solution, the Efficiency Unit is now able to quickly generate the necessary reports for performance evaluations.
 
“While previously it used to take up to a week to compile reports on key performance indicators such as customer satisfaction and call abandonment rate, the same reports can now be produced almost immediately via the performance dashboard,” Tan said.
 
“We certainly believe that there are tremendous opportunities for further analytics adoption in Malaysia. Based on case studies from other markets, SAS’ analytics tools have the potential to greatly enhance not just agricultural efficiency but also evaluate market sentiments and calculate accurate projections for overall economic growth,” he added.
 
With the 13^th General Election expected in the first quarter of 2013, SAS said it was confident it could play a significant role in public sentiment analysis.
 
The recent presidential elections in the United States have shown that there is a strong interest in the use of social media and public sentiment analytics which can provide genuine feedback on the electoral predilections of voters.
 
During the 2008 US presidential election, the use of analytics to augment the election campaign generated an additional US$60 million in donations for Barack Obama. Following that, Obama’s campaign team further leveraged on analytics tools to fine-tune fundraising tactics and sharpen their messaging. As a result, over US$1 billion was raised from the 2012 election cycle alone.
 
While the underlying electoral machinery may differ, SAS believes that the use of large-scale analytics will help to provide a much clearer political analysis and voter sentiment landscape in the upcoming election cycle for Malaysia.
 
“We look forward to continue providing world-class analytics solutions to power the operations of government institutions as well as help them to better anticipate and understand their citizens’ needs,” said Tan.
 
“Through the use of our analytics solutions, we are confident that Malaysian citizens would be able to enjoy better interactions with government agencies, stronger protection from fraud and also increased security,” he added.
 
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