Some 1,000 SAS users assembled In Philadelphia for the SUGI 30 conference, April 10-13, 2005. The conference found SAS installations adjusting to SAS 9 while SAS Institute pitched additional uses for its technology.
In the opening session, SAS CEO Jim Goodnight talked up SAS’s steady revenue growth — $1.5 billion last year — and its newly expanded academic offerings that he hoped would lead to a growing body of SAS users. He described an expanded view of business intelligence, then moments later emphasized the importance of going "beyond BI" to integrate business information more effectively across business operations.
There were no major product announcements, but SAS demonstrated a streamlined installation package. SAS also announced a repackaging of last year’s SAS Enterprise BI Server, and engineers were starting to talk about new features in development for SAS 9.2.
The conference was scaled back compared to years past. The schedule eliminated most ancillary events such as the traditional running race and the team trivia contest. But the arena-sized demo area and hundred-plus formal presentations per day served as reminders that SUGI is still the big SAS event.