Health Information Technology

SAS is a company that was founded in 1976 by students at the North Carolina State University. The company makes statistical software that is currently used by most large corporations. It is a privately held company that has been very successful at what it does over the years. The success does not come by surprise as SAS is one of the most admired companies to work for. The company focuses on education, government and large corporations. SAS has been very successful due to its people and their workplace culture. Unlike Nordstrom, SAS values their employees and rewards them for their hard work. Its strategy is similar to that of Southwest but more formal as it is not a service company. Their strategy focuses on the listening to the customer what they want and provide the product and service they need. The main key to their success is this customer-driven development process along with exceptionally high level of service. The company is very unique when it comes to its pricing and selling strategy. They provide the software at free trail and charge for upgrades, updates and support. The initial sales are low but as the time passes by the revenues increase. SAS also has a very high renewal rate for a software company at 98%. Another reason for such success is that the company provides a range of software products that no other competitor does. The company has many competitors but none that offer such product line. SAS invests largely in research and development and have seen large returns on investment. They are able to accomplish this since they are a private company and they don’t have to think about quarterly earnings, shareholders. Their vision is long run growth. Nothing the company does is short-term oriented. The people at SAS are highly valued and carefully selected. Ones at the SAS they enjoy many benefits and perks. The working environment is friendly, motivating and innovational. The company’s goal is to have low turnover and high retention. The SAS emphasizes intrinsic motivation and trust between co-workers as ingredient for success. As the company is in North Carolina it recruits at local colleges and universities people who are willing to stay in the area. Their strong culture organization contributes to their success. The employees are compensated at very competitive rates; they enjoy profit-sharing that is contributed in their retirement accounts at rates very few companies have.  In general SAS is very generous to their employees in terms of benefits and compensation. As a result they have a system of happy employees that are motivated not just by the financial gain but also by their overall culture in which they work. It is great company to work for.