SAS, Altron in strategic partnership
TWO of South Africa’s technology industry leaders are to combine their strengths in a collaborative effort to help customers transform their data into intelligence through the application of analytic software and services, focusing on all industries with exclusivity for the public sector.
Global analytics software and services firm, SAS, and Altron, announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement.
A first for SAS in the South African market, this landmark partnership will see Altron establish a dedicated SAS business unit within its Bytes Systems Integration (Altron BSI) operation to sell and license SAS software to support the public and private sectors in industries such as financial services, retail, healthcare, education and revenue services.
Mteto Nyati, Altron Group chief executive, pointed out that SAS would empower customers to make informed decisions through analytics in critical areas of business such as workforce management, detection of fraudulent payments, public safety information to keep watch on offender crime rates and patterns as well as immigration violations.
“When data is correctly processed and analysed, it is possible to make predictions about behaviours, potential risks, fraud and likely outcomes.
“For example, predictions made by means of an algorithm could be used to adjust the deployment of police services to address challenges of citizen safety and security in South Africa.”
Desan Naidoo, SAS vice president for Africa, said the partnership would enable them to deploy their solutions into the market with speed and agility to help customers transform their data into intelligence and insights.
“It also illustrates the synergies between us – we are the global leader in advanced data analytics, while data analytics is one of Altron’s focus areas for growth as a business.”
The global business and analytics market is poised to grow to $26.78 billion by 2020, with emphasis and growth predictions in regions such as the Middle East and Africa where it is expected to reach between $3.8bn and $4.2bn in the same period.