SAS is moving in to expand their presence in Kenya. The global software firm with revenues of USD 2.5 billion today announced that they will have a local office in the next 18 months. They made the announcement at the Kenya ICT Board Multinational Companies (MNC) Breakfast briefing held at the Nairobi Intercontinental.Carel Badenhorst, SAS head of technology practice in the Middle East region says that SAS is in the business of helping organizations and governments make analytic decisions. “ We want to make sure whatever decisions we have taken to drive up profit margins or better decisions for citizens, e.g. in housing, health-care should be supported by a process and not gut feeling,” he says. The business analytics methodology starts with using a huge amount of data that is found in operational areas like Oracle operational data, SAP or core banking software. The operational data systems do not give decision support, hence business analytics systems. The data is then used in building forecasts like, ‘what if analysis and other predictive modeling routines in addition to the data are used to back future decision making’. Badenhorst says that Kenya is now at a point where systems holding operational data are coming to maturity hence been a ripe time for business analytics to come into play.

Decisions made through analytics can be anything from profit driven decisions like financial distribution, customer satisfaction or socially complex decisions like provision of education, clean water or even health care.
Banks, for example, can use analytics to interact with customers and determine whether the manner in which they provide services to the customers is appropriate to the customers. “They should make sure their products support customer base to have an easier and smoother experience with the organization to reduce churn,” says Carel.
Analytics are used to understand who customers are, what they look like, the services and products they need. Carel says that analytics can be replicated in any industry such as a car salesman would like to know if taxis need 4 X 4 based on their past purchases.
Badenhorst says that the firm’s effort will be supplementing their local partners including BIS. Institutions such as ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute), ICIPE (International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology), KARI (Kenya Agricultural Research Institute) Safaricom and several banks.
Badenhorst also says that the firm will be making their software available to academic institutions which would then integrate its analytical decision into their coursework in mathematics and computer based sciences, as well as postgraduate studies. This will begin with a pilot study featuring two educational institutions. “When students complete coursework, they already understand concepts of analytical decision making and will be in a position to add value to their work places from day one,” he says.