January 26, 2000 Web posted at: 1:50 p.m. EST (1850 GMT) by Ted Smalley Bowen

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(IDG) -- SAN DIEGO -- SAS Institute, known for its statistical analysis software, is teaming with IBM's business intelligence group to offer consulting services and integrated e-business applications based on SAS software and IBM's DB2 database.

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Announced Monday here at IBM's PartnerWorld 2000 conference, the three-year deal is intended to yield a consulting practice within IBM Global Services centered on SAS applications; tighter integration between SAS software and DB2 running on IBM servers; and a pipeline of SAS software to fuel IBM Global Services' business intelligence, data warehousing, and decision support efforts.

The SAS-IBM pairing marks an effort by the vendors, who to date have had a relationship primarily based around hardware-related ventures, to tap into their respective analysis and data management software portfolios to garner an advantage in meeting e-business applications requirements. Officials feel the synergy between the two companies provides a unique opportunity to excel in meeting customers' increasing business intelligence needs.

"I would put this [in terms of importance] along the same lines as our Seibel and SAP partnerships," said Robert Puicini, managing principal of IBM's business intelligence consulting and services.

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In fact, noted Marianna Suciu, vice president of U.S. commercial sales for SAS, the companies see an opportunity to leverage IBM's existing partnerships with the likes of Seibel and SAP to further enhance their ability to address analytics for such areas as customer relationship managagement (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and what they are calling supplier relationship management (SRM).

"I definitely see an opportunity to link these systems and have them talk," Suciu said. "Obviously a triangular relationship would be advantageous to customers."

SAS will furnish analysis software for CRM, ERP, and SRM, while IBM will contribute analytical services, systems integration, and vertical industry, e-business intelligence consulting, according to the partners.

In addition, SAS is already one of the companies involved in making sure its software is optimized for the next version of IBM's DB2 database, which is expected later this year.