SAS reports revenue growth

Software firm avoids lay-offs and remains optimistic about the year ahead

SAS maintained positive results and managed to avoid lay-offs

Business intelligence vendor SAS has reported positive results and managed to achieve growth of seven per cent in UK software market despite the downturn.

The company posted a 2.2 per cent revenue gain over 2008 at $2.31bn (£1.42bn) in 2009, with financial services spend accounting for 42 per cent of the total.

Other verticals where growth rates were high for the company included government, healthcare, insurance and retail.

According to the firm, SAS reinvested 23 per cent of its 2009 revenue in research and development and ended the year with no redundancies resulting from wider economic pressure.

Maintaining a commitment to staff pays off, said the firm’s chief executive Jim Goodnight.

“In January I told employees there would be no lay-offs. I wanted them to stay focused on customer needs and not be distracted by issues related to corporate viability."