SAS is launching a subsidiary that will focus on providing data analysis tools to the federal government, especially the homeland security and intelligence agencies, the Cary software maker announced Monday.
The subsidiary, which is yet to be named, will be based in Cary and will be organized over the next several months, says SAS spokesman Trent Smith. More than 50 SAS employees will be allocated to the subsidiary, which will hire an -as-yet-to-be-determined number of additional employees with the security requirements needed to assist intelligence and homeland security efforts.
Tom Mazich, SAS' vice president of government operations, will head the new subsidiary, which will look to supply federal agencies involved in homeland defense with software that allows them to share information in real time, to analyze that information and to make better-informed decisions. Improved information sharing and analysis could have helped to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"The events of 9/11 were a wake-up call: We need to do a better job of understanding potential threats to our country. There is so much data from so many different sources - human intelligence, 'open source', and even that gathered by technology - that is significant to safeguarding the United States," Mazich said in a news release. "The intelligence and homeland security communities must be able to make sense of all this data in a timely manner so they can make critical decisions. SAS technology will be a major contributor to helping the government fully understand its information."
While all 15 federal departments use SAS software, but the company believes a dedicated subsidiary will serve the market better.
SAS, which posted 2007 revenue of $2.15 billion, has 10,619 employees worldwide, 4,244 of them in Cary.
By: Jeff Drew
Triangle Business Journal; May 19, 2008
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