馬來西亞北方大學採用SAS方案

UUM gears into Analytics with SAS

KUALA LUMPUR, 13 November 2007 - Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) todaysigned a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SAS Malaysia incollaboration for a SAS Business Intelligence Competency Centre (BICC) at the university's premise.

UUM through its own company, R&D SerindIT Com UUM Sdn. Bhd., is the firstuniversity in Malaysia to embark on the setting up of a BICC, which promotesand supports the effective use of Business Intelligence (BI) across theuniversity. The establishment of the SAS BICC centre on UUM's grounds ispart of the university's strive to become a centre of excellence formanagement.

The Business Intelligence Competency Centre, or BICC, is a permanent andformal organisational structure, akin to an advisory panel or a user groupthat oversees the overall BI strategy within an organisation.

Of the driving factors behind UUM's BICC initiative, R&D SerindIT Com UUMSdn. Bhd. Chairman, Dato' Khalid bin Ahmad says, "We decided to integrate aBICC into UUM's initiative for analytics in order to centralise our effortsto facilitate better BI best practices and knowledge transfer within theorganisation."

"The set up of a BICC will not only help us pool our resources, skills andknowledge to gain a higher level of ROI from our investments in advancedanalytics, but also enables us to channel the BI knowledge we have intoconsultations and research work for ministries, agencies and organisationsseeking for BI information," he adds.

UUM has been licensing the SAS Software since 1989. SAS was chosen as itprovided the necessary curriculum development and course consulting that wasessential to UUM.

Having worked so well with SAS for the last 18 years, it's only natural toembark on the setting up of a SAS BICC in UUM. Furthermore they are the onlyvendor that can provide the platform, solutions, strategy and execution,"says Vice Chancellor of Universiti Utara Malaysia, Yang Bhg Tan Sri DrNordin Kardi.

Steven Ing, Professional Services Director, SAS Asia Pacific, shares therelevance of BICC in the expanding BI market, "BI tools are fast becomingthe top investment priorities for corporations as it facilitatescompetitive-edge analysis, query and reporting business performanceinformation. But the inability to integrate IT with the company's corebusiness eventually leads to the downfall of their investment."

"BICC helps organisations identify its objectives, areas of concern, and therequired role of each member to develop a user-centric management plan. SASBICC provides a unique approach that combines the four critical elements forthe success of BI deployment: Infrastructure, Knowledge Processes, Cultureand Human Capital," he says.

"SAS BICC has helped various organisations worldwide turn their data intoactionable knowledge. It acts as a bridge between IT and businesses byhelping ensure IT investments (in BI) reaps its full potential for thebusiness."

Use of Analytics at UUM
BI has been part of UUM's syllabus for some time now. Many courses in UUMunder the Faculty of Quantitative Sciences, Faculty of InformationTechnology and Faculty of Accounting are currently using SAS software suchas the SAS Data Mining and Data Analysis solutions which allow users toexplore and exploit corporate data for strategic business advantage.

Students and lectures alike have benefited from the use of the analyticalsoftware to gain valuable insights from real-life datasets. At the sametime, researchers at UUM work together with SAS in analytic research as wellas management consultation work (provided by UUM) in the field of analytics.

"There is no doubt that UUM has adopted BI as an integral part of theuniversity's academia operations. The setting up of BICC in UUM willdefinitely help drive our aim to proliferate the usage of BI in the mostoptimal manner, as part of our contribution to the nation's thrust towardsgenerating a reliable pool of knowledge workforce," ends Tan Sri Dr. NordinKardi.