Leading global software firm SAS is looking to expand their role in Kenya, it said at a meeting with Kenya's ICT Board on Thursday. The company said that it was hoping to establish an office in the country within the next year and a half. Carel Badenhorst, SAS head of technology practice in the Middle East region, said that his company 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 said. 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,” the company said. Badenhorst continued to say 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. BM
