Nokia and SAS First to WAP-Enable Business Intelligence

SAS Institute, a market leader in e-intelligence and data warehousing, announced a marketing and technology integration co-operation with Nokia to WAP-Enable business intelligence applications.

The co-operation reduces the development time for WAP-enabled business intelligence applications running on the Nokia WAP Server. the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an open, global standard for communication between a mobile handset and the Internet or other computer applications.

The agreement gives a 30-day free trial of the Nokia WAP Server to customers worldwide who have licensed SAS' AppDev Studio applications development suite. Version 2 of AppDev Studio, available in December 2000, will include the Nokia software development kit that enables developers to immediately test their applications on the Nokia WAP Server. Nokia will provide SAS with support and consultation services related to the Nokia WAP server for developing packaged WAP-enabled extensions to key SAS business solutions, among them fraud detection and balanced scorecard.

"Both SAS and Nokia offer robust, high-performance software for WAP-enabling business applications, and their co-operation will enable customers to more quickly see the return on their investment in WAP-enablement," says Jarle Jevnesveen of Telenor Teleservice, part of Telenor, Norway's market leader in telecommunications data services and media broadcasting. Telenor Teleservice has recently completed a prototype application, built in SAS and run on the Nokia WAP Server. The application has WAP-enabled Telenor Teleservice's call centre data warehouse, sending instant notification of urgent issues to callcentre managers when away from their desks.

"In today's workforce, the combination of mobility and the Internet causes increased demand for always-on access to all types of information and resources", said Gerhard Romen, vice president of strategic software, Nokia Internet Communications. "We are looking forward to working with SAS to further contribute to the rapid deployment of business WAP solutions and to put real-time, personalised applications of high value into corporate user's pockets."

"SAS is the market leader in analytical software that gives our customers the intelligence they need about their suppliers, customers and the organization to make critical business decisions," said Matthew Mikell, Manager of Partners and Alliances for SAS EMEA. "We are very pleased to be working with Nokia, the supplier of the world's most recognised WAP server for the corporate market to further extend the range of channels through which SAS business intelligence may be distributed. This agreement provides our customers with a greater return on their investment in SAS and Nokia software."

"SAS is well positioned to play a significant role in extending end-user access to business intelligence applications through multiple interaction channels," says Luis Leamus, vice president International of META." We believe SAS' application architecture which separates the information distribution level from the application code, should facilitate the support of multiple front-end interaction channels. With this announcement SAS enables its users to select mobile or traditional full-clients to access a common set of analytical applications."

About SAS

SAS is a world leader in e-intelligence software and services, enabling its customers to turn raw data - including the vast quantity generated by e-business - into usable knowledge. Software from SAS, one of the world's largest privately held software companies, is used at more than 33,000 business, government and university sites in 110 countries. SAS' 1999 revenues totaled $1.02 billion. For more information, visit www.sas.com.

About Nokia

Nokia is paving the way to the Mobile Information Society with its innovative products and solutions. The company is the leading mobile phone supplier and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks, related services as well as multimedia terminals. In 1999, Nokia's net sales totaled EUR 19.8 billion (USD 19.9 billion). Headquartered in Finland, Nokia employs more than 60 000 people.

About the Nokia WAP Server

The Nokia WAP Server is the world's most recognized WAP server for the corporate market, allowing mission critical information from a Web site to be available on mobile devices. It connects WAP enabled mobile handsets to content and services hosted by Web servers or any other Intranet or Internet server securely and cost-effectively. More information at www.nokia.com/corporate/wap.

About AppDev Studio

AppDev Studio provides a single interface for the development of thin-and power-client business intelligence applications. AppDev Studio supports every major Web standard on both the server and the client side. CIOs can choose SAS as their standard for business intelligence in the knowledge that the analytical power of SAS can be deployed throughout the organization, regardless of the applications development and information distribution architecture.

Contact SAS Public Relations, EMEA, Frances Bell or Anja Noffke, +49 6221 4160, or Nokia Corporate Communications Americas, 972-894-6146 or Nokia Internet Communications Europe, +44 7788 145460 and +358 40 5217844, www.nokia.com.