SAS' revenue up 12% in 2011

Software giant SAS' revenue grew 12 percent last year to $2.725 billion as more companies used its analytic tools to better understand their operations.

It was SAS' first double-digit increase since 2007, and was more than double the pace of growth of a year earlier.

The Cary-based company also continued to grow its workforce, expanding its worldwide staff by 9.2 percent. That included an expansion of 8 percent, or 367 workers, at its Cary headquarters.

Although SAS has plenty of competitors, comparing its revenue growth to others' has pitfalls. For example, one key competitor, IBM, is in many businesses where SAS doesn't operate.

One broad point of comparison: Worldwide software spending was forecast to rise 9.6 percent last year, according to research firm Gartner.

"Twelve percent is a pretty good number for a company of their size," analyst Bert Hochfeld of Hochfeld Independent Research Group said of SAS' growth.

Privately held SAS doesn't release profits but says it has made money every year since its founding in 1976.

Unlike most of its competitors, SAS charges annual subscription fees for its software instead of charging a large upfront fee and smaller maintenance fees. That means most of its revenue growth must come from new customers or existing customers who expand their use of SAS software.

Jim Davis, SAS' senior vice president and chief marketing officer, said those "new sales" increased 20 percent in the U.S. last year.

SAS has 12,553 employees worldwide and is one of the Triangle's largest employers with 4,857 people in Cary.

The company is perennially ranked by various business publications as one of the best places to work, and it received another accolade on Thursday.

SAS ranked No. 3 in Fortune magazine's latest list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For." That was a comedown of sorts for SAS, which had been ranked No. 1 the past two years.

Davis said there's little difference between the top five companies on the list, which this year is led by Google.

"I didn't expect that we would be No. 1," he said. "I knew that we would be in the top five."

Corporations use SAS business intelligence and analytics software to analyze their operations and predict trends. The company is benefiting from the growing popularity of "Big Data," where companies take advantage of more efficient, less expensive computer processing to analyze humongous quantities of data about customers and competitors.

SAS' revenue growth was mostly organic - the company made two relatively small acquisitions last year - and was broad-based.

SAS is the industry leader in analytical software with a 35 percent market share, according to research firm IDC. That segment of the business grew a little more than 10 percent last year, Davis said.

"We continue to grow in that space even though other companies have entered that space," he said, referring to IBM's acquisitions of a number of analytics companies in recent years. If anything, he added, the noise that IBM is making in the marketplace is raising SAS' profile by shining a spotlight on business analytics software.

Among the fastest growing parts of SAS' business was its anti-fraud business line, which grew 121 percent. Sales of customer intelligence software increased 38 percent, while consulting revenues grew 29 percent.

SAS continues to invest heavily in research and development. Last year it plowed 24 percent of its revenue - more than $650 million - into R&D.

Davis said he is extremely optimistic about the company's prospects for 2012 but declined to be more specific.

"There are so many things that can affect our business," he said. "There are so many things that are beyond our control."