Following the launch of SAS 9, I spoke with Jim about the new platform and SAS branding strategies.

Meyer: In the past, the SAS brand tended to be transparent. Will SAS 9 put the SAS brand front and center?

Davis: We do not want to be transparent by any means. We want the SAS brand out there at all levels of the organization. We want to be absolutely present.

Meyer: What steps are you taking to increase brand awareness?

Davis: We are obviously spending more on marketing than we have in previous years. We're really working on the corporate brand. We're hoping that SAS 9 will help us sell more software and boost brand awareness.

Meyer: How much more money are you spending on branding?

Davis: I think it's safe to say we have increased our budgets for worldwide marketing by 15 to 20 percent in the last 12 months, for many reasons. For one, SAS 9 is a big deal and we want to get the word out. The other is that as the economy has tightened, the interest in business intelligence and high-end analytics has increased. So you have a lot of players moving into this space and spending tremendous amounts of money on advertising. So we have to spend more money to cut through all the hype in the marketplace.

Meyer: Where is the hype coming from?

Davis: Two sources. The first would be the traditional ERP vendors whose revenue streams have dried up significantly. Now they're saying they provide business intelligence. That's hype because what they're talking about and what they're delivering are two different things. The second source of hype would be the traditional business intelligence vendors. They're all saying they do analytics, but what they really mean is historical reporting. When SAS and its customers talk about analytics, we mean predictive capacity that enables people to see future trends in various aspects of their business.

Meyer: Is it time to redefine the meaning of business intelligence?

Davis: Yes. The market is ready for a new definition because today business intelligence today doesn't mean the same thing that it did 10 years ago. BI is now strategic. That's a huge difference.