Date:         Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:21:09 -0400
Reply-To:     "D.J. Penix" <dj.penix@PSICONSULTANTS.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "D.J. Penix" <dj.penix@PSICONSULTANTS.COM>
Organization: Pinnacle Solutions, Inc.
Subject:      Re: Rant: I really hate the SAS pricing structure
In-Reply-To:  <200803112112.m2BGU0bf027397@malibu.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I've seen many posts with regards to the SAS pricing structure over the last
several days. Since our company is an authorized SAS Reseller, I am the
first to admit I have a biased perspective. However I feel that not many
people realize that SAS is aware of the financial challenges of small
businesses and has been doing something about it.

SAS has in fact created a SAS Reseller program that is geared specifically
toward helping Small-to-Mid sized Businesses (SMB). These user-based bundles
are priced competitively toward smaller companies. So companies that have
only a handful of users for example can now purchase SAS in this model
rather than licensing it on the CPU & Server model. Although this has not
been aggressively publicized by SAS, the program has been in place for well
over a year.

I encourage you to check out the SMB portion of the SAS website.
http://www.sas.com/software/smb/ The SAS software is the same and it has the
same exact functionality and support (i.e. hot fixes, upgrades, and tech
support) as the traditional SAS commercial licensing. It is just now
user-based licensing rather than CPU-based licensing.

Although there are too many configurations to list for pricing, there are
also some pricing examples if you are interested at
http://www.psiconsultants.com (yes, it is possible to get SAS pricing).

Note that these bundle configurations and pricing are specific to SMB. Also,
you can not get the user based pricing from a SAS Sales Representative. You
can only get it through an authorized SAS Reseller.

Although we can help any organization interested in acquiring SAS products,
there are various restrictions to qualify for the user-based SMB pricing.
For example, one of the requirements is that companies must do less than
$500 million/year in revenue. It also is restricted to a 4-CPU server or
less.

I know that many of you might be in San Antonio for the SGF conference. If
so, Pinnacle Solutions will be in booth #91 in the SAS Demo Area and I'd be
happy to discuss this in more detail. Also, you can give me grief for all of
this shameless self-promotion :)

See you in San Antonio!



>On Mar 6, 8:56 pm, Patrick <patrick.mat...@gmx.ch> wrote:
>> Chris
>> I agree that SAS pricing approach is a very special.
>> The price mentioned here sounds for me like a "standard" price for a
>> server with 2 cpu's - independent from the number of users.
>> SAS pricing can be competitive - but an experienced negotiator on the
>> buyer's side is a must. Just don't accept the first offer!
>> Have a clear upper limit of what you are open to pay. Ask SAS for a
>> solution for your problem and let them make a new offer.
>> Have a limitation on 4 users included in the contract and I'm sure the
>> price will be much lower that what was initially offered.
>> Cheers
>> Patrick
>
>Turn your company into a school and get the educational pricing.