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Who are SAS's Customers?
Understanding customer demographics and target markets is crucial for success in the data and AI landscape. As the world's data grows, so does the need for advanced analytical solutions.
SAS, a leader in AI and analytics, serves a broad spectrum of industries. Its solutions are designed to help organizations of all sizes harness the power of their data for better decision-making.
What is Customer Demographics and Target Market of SAS Company?
SAS's customer base is predominantly business-to-business (B2B), encompassing a wide array of sectors. These include financial services, government, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and telecommunications. The company's offerings are tailored to meet the complex analytical needs of large enterprises, mid-sized businesses, and even government agencies. For a deeper dive into the external factors influencing these markets, consider a SAS PESTEL Analysis.
Who Are SAS’s Main Customers?
SAS primarily serves business-to-business (B2B) clients across a broad spectrum of industries and company sizes. Its solutions cater to sectors like banking, government, insurance, healthcare, and retail, with an increasing focus on life sciences and healthcare data and AI solutions.
Industry Focus
SAS targets key industries including banking, government, insurance, healthcare, life sciences, retail, manufacturing, utilities, and telecommunications. The company is actively expanding its reach into new sectors.
Company Size Segmentation
SAS serves a range of company sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises. For its cloud-native platform, a significant portion of customers are large organizations with over 10,000 employees.
Strategic Market Approach
In 2024, SAS transitioned to a more horizontal market approach, aiming to serve a wider array of industries and leverage its partner network. This shift supports its growth in big data, AI, and cloud computing markets.
Growth Metrics
SAS reported a 24% increase in SAS Viya sales in 2024, with SAS Viya 4 sales growing by 56%. Managed Cloud Services also saw a 16% sales increase, marking five years of double-digit cloud growth.
Customer Profile and Market Reach
SAS's market segmentation is driven by industry, company size, and specific business challenges. The company's strategy is designed to address diverse client needs effectively, aligning with its Mission, Vision & Core Values of SAS.
- SAS is recognized on the 2025 MES Midmarket 100 list for its solutions targeting companies with annual revenues between $50 million and $2 billion or 100 to 2,500 users.
- The company serves mid-sized companies, with 149 customers employing 1,000-4,999 individuals and 99 customers with 100-249 employees.
- SAS's customer segmentation focuses on addressing critical business issues rather than traditional demographic factors.
- The company's expansion into new areas like life sciences and healthcare indicates an evolving target market.
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What Do SAS’s Customers Want?
SAS's customer base is driven by the need to extract actionable insights from vast data volumes for better decision-making and operational efficiency. A key challenge addressed is managing and processing large datasets, with one banking client handling 52TB. Customers also prioritize overcoming data access, cost, and privacy hurdles, especially for AI model development, and demand explainable AI.
Data Management and Analysis Needs
Customers require robust solutions for managing, analyzing, and visualizing large and complex datasets to gain competitive advantages.
AI and Data Privacy
There's a significant need to address data access, cost, and privacy concerns for AI model training and testing, alongside a demand for trustworthy AI.
Product Development Influence
Customer feedback and market trends like big data and AI adoption continuously shape product enhancements, including personalized experiences.
Tailored and Accessible Solutions
Customers seek adaptable platforms like SAS Viya, supporting various skill levels and programming languages, alongside specialized industry solutions.
Value of Analytical Accuracy
Customers highly value the accuracy of analytical results, often considering the company's tools the 'gold standard' for analysis.
Addressing Data Scarcity
Acquisitions, such as the one for synthetic data technology in November 2024, directly address customer challenges related to data scarcity for AI development.
The company's strategic approach to meeting customer needs is evident in its continuous refinement of offerings based on user input and market shifts. This includes leveraging tools like Customer Intelligence 360 for personalized customer experiences and the development of SAS Viya, a cloud-native AI and analytics platform. Viya's features, such as Viya Workbench and Viya Copilot, are designed to accommodate a range of user expertise and support multiple programming languages, including Python, SAS, and R. Furthermore, the introduction of 'SAS Models' provides lightweight, industry-specific AI models aimed at facilitating rapid integration and delivering quick returns on investment. This focus on adaptability and specialized solutions underscores the company's commitment to addressing diverse customer requirements across various industries. Understanding the Marketing Strategy of SAS can provide further context on how these customer needs are met.
Key Customer Preferences and Drivers
Customers prioritize solutions that enable them to manage massive datasets, derive actionable insights, and gain a competitive edge. The demand for explainable and trustworthy AI is a critical factor in their decision-making process.
- Efficient processing of large and complex datasets.
- Overcoming barriers in data access, cost, and privacy for AI model development.
- Need for explainable and trustworthy artificial intelligence.
- Personalized customer experiences driven by data analytics.
- Adaptable platforms supporting multiple programming languages and skill levels.
- Specialized industry solutions for sectors like life sciences and healthcare.
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Where does SAS operate?
SAS boasts a significant global footprint, reaching customers in 140 countries and serving a base of 70,000 clients worldwide. The United States stands out as a primary market, representing 49.49% of SAS Viya customers, followed by France at 9.29% and the United Kingdom at 7.94%.
Global Reach and Key Markets
SAS operates in 140 countries, serving 70,000 customers globally. The United States is its largest market for SAS Viya, accounting for 49.49% of its customer base.
Strategic Market Penetration
France and the United Kingdom are also significant markets for SAS Viya, with customer percentages of 9.29% and 7.94% respectively. The company leverages partnerships to expand its sales reach, particularly in regions where a direct in-country presence is not feasible.
The company's strategy includes a commitment to cloud service provider (CSP) agnosticism for SAS Viya. This allows for deployments on platforms like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS), with a planned expansion to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in 2025. This multi-cloud approach is crucial for catering to diverse regional cloud preferences and broadening market access. In 2024, SAS shifted to a horizontal marketing strategy to better serve a wider array of industries across the globe, adapting to evolving market needs and reinforcing its recurring revenue streams through long-standing customer relationships.
Cloud Agnosticism
SAS Viya is designed to be deployed across various cloud platforms, including Azure and AWS, with GCP support planned for 2025. This flexibility enhances its appeal to a global customer base with diverse cloud infrastructure preferences.
Horizontal Marketing Approach
The company adopted a horizontal marketing strategy in 2024 to broaden its appeal across multiple industries worldwide. This strategic shift aims to capture a larger share of the global market by offering versatile solutions.
Partnership Strategy
SAS actively pursues strategic partnerships to bolster its global sales efforts. This is particularly important in markets where establishing a direct, substantial in-country presence might be less economically viable.
Customer Retention
The company benefits from steady recurring revenue, a testament to its decades-long customer relationships. This indicates a strong focus on customer satisfaction and the continued relevance of its offerings.
Innovation for Relevance
SAS consistently invests in innovation to ensure its solutions remain pertinent in diverse international markets. This forward-looking approach is key to maintaining its competitive edge and serving evolving customer needs.
Market Diversification
By embracing a multi-cloud strategy and a horizontal marketing approach, SAS aims to diversify its revenue streams and reduce reliance on any single market or technology. This broadens its addressable market and strengthens its overall business resilience.
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How Does SAS Win & Keep Customers?
Customer acquisition and retention are central to the company's strategy, focusing on innovation and proven analytical capabilities. The company actively builds trust and attracts new clients through extensive analyst recognitions, having been named a leader in 47 evaluations in 2024 across crucial areas like AI and machine learning. Marketing efforts highlight its cloud-native AI and analytics platform, SAS Viya, alongside new tools designed for enhanced user experience.
Leveraging Analyst Validation for Acquisition
The company's consistent recognition as a leader by analysts in various evaluations, including 47 instances in 2024, serves as a significant trust-building factor for potential new customers. This validation across AI, machine learning, and data science areas directly supports its acquisition efforts.
Targeting the Midmarket and Broader Reach
Inclusion in the 2025 MES Midmarket 100 list highlights a strategic focus on the midmarket segment. This is supported by tailored solutions and partner-driven strategies, alongside a 'downmarket strategy' that utilizes SaaS and cloud deployments to make its offerings accessible to a wider range of company sizes.
Strategic Partnerships and Cloud Deployment
Sales tactics involve direct engagement and key collaborations, such as the 2024 partnership with Deloitte for SAS Viya on AWS. Further expansion onto Google Cloud Platform is planned for 2025, demonstrating a commitment to flexible cloud deployments.
Customer Retention Through Value and Support
Retention is fostered by building long-term relationships and delivering demonstrable value, with a focus on enhancing customer lifetime value and minimizing churn. Continuous integration of customer feedback into product development and robust educational resources are key components.
Customer retention is further strengthened by a commitment to continuous improvement and customer empowerment. The company actively uses its Customer Intelligence 360 suite to personalize interactions and boost conversion rates. Educational initiatives, like the SAS Educator Portal and SAS Skill Builder for Students, alongside competitions such as the Curiosity Cup, aim to cultivate future talent and ensure users are proficient with its solutions. The launch of AI Governance Advisory in 2024 provides a value-added service to help clients navigate AI governance, building trust in their AI implementations. The significant productivity gains reported in a 2024 Futurum Group study, showing teams over 4x more productive and 30x faster with SAS Viya, act as a powerful retention driver. The company has also adapted its market approach, shifting to horizontal marketing and prioritizing cloud-agnostic deployments to offer flexible solutions that align with evolving customer needs. This adaptability is crucial for maintaining relevance and customer loyalty in a dynamic market, as detailed in the Brief History of SAS.
Productivity Enhancement
A 2024 study indicated that SAS Viya makes teams over 4x more productive and 30x faster than alternatives, a key factor in customer retention.
Customer Feedback Integration
Customer feedback is continuously integrated into product improvements, ensuring solutions remain relevant and meet evolving user needs.
Educational Initiatives
Programs like the SAS Educator Portal and SAS Skill Builder for Students empower users and cultivate future SAS analytics professionals.
AI Governance Support
The 2024 launch of AI Governance Advisory offers clients assistance in navigating AI governance, enhancing trust in AI deployments.
Cloud-Agnostic Strategy
Prioritizing cloud-agnostic deployments provides customers with flexible and scalable solutions, adapting to diverse preferences.
Midmarket Focus
Inclusion in the 2025 MES Midmarket 100 list underscores a strategic effort to engage and serve the midmarket segment effectively.
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