Accenture and SAS to Jointly Develop, Implement and Manage Predictive Analytics Solutions

With a goal of helping companies and government organizations understand and implement predictive analytics solutions, Accenture (New York) and SAS (Cary, N.C.) announced the formation of the Accenture SAS Analytics Group, a plan to expand their strategic relationship by jointly developing, implementing and managing "next-generation" predictive analytics solutions.

As part of the expansion, the two companies intend to jointly invest in the development of solutions focused on industry-specific predictive analytics applications, starting with the financial services, healthcare and public service sectors; as well as cross-industry solutions in the customer and enterprise management domains. They also plan to begin delivering analytical capabilities as a managed service.

"Our enhanced relationship with SAS is a key element of Accenture's strategy of aggressively addressing the opportunities around the next generation of analytics," said William D. Green, Accenture's chairman and CEO, in a press release. "Companies that use predictive analytics to derive actionable insights from data and then use those insights to shape decisions can improve business outcomes and substantially outperform competitors over the long term."

Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS, added, "In our long experience providing analytic insights to our customers, we've never seen leaders so readily adopting analytic approaches across their organizations. The Accenture SAS Analytics Group will help these companies take their business results to the next level by applying best-of-breed predictive analytics and best practices to complex questions and decisions. Together, we will deliver a high performance analytic platform combined with management and industry expertise that is platform-independent, so organizations can leverage their existing IT infrastructure," he noted in a statement.

The Accenture SAS Analytics Group plans to initially focus on developing a series of predictive solutions for the financial services industry, including insurance and banking; healthcare services, including payer/provider and pharmaceuticals; as well as the public sector, in areas such as federal and human services. In addition, cross-industry functional solutions are expected to start with customer acquisition and retention, as well as enterprise analytics.

Plans also call for the formation of joint analytics showcases in multiple locations, starting with Chicago, London, Milan and Shanghai, where the companies intend to demonstrate their new industry and functional predictive analytics capabilities to clients.

"During previous downturns, companies that thrived used data insights to produce lasting competitive advantage," said Dave Rich, managing director, Accenture Analytics, in a press release. "Companies today can use predictive analytics to gain deeper insight that has not been previously obtainable, allowing decisions to be made more quickly and business performance to be improved."

Katherine Burger is Editorial Director of Bank Systems & Technology and Insurance & Technology, members of UBM TechWeb's InformationWeek Financial Services. She assumed leadership of Bank Systems & Technology in 2003 and of Insurance & Technology in 1991. In addition to ... View Full Bio