PHYSICS

SAS, the leader in business intelligence, today presented the 13th annual SAS Enterprise Intelligence Award for government to the U.S. Department of Commerce for excellence in applying solutions for performance management. Commerce executives use SAS to run a Web-based executive dashboard solution that enables them to assess and report on the performance and the effectiveness of their organizations. The award was presented at the sixth annual SAS Public Sector Executive Event in Washington. The Enterprise Intelligence Award recognizes organizations that best demonstrate the use of SAS software to achieve organizational goals and maximize return on investment. Leading the effort to implement the Consolidated Reporting System (CRS) solution was the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration (CFO/ASA), which oversees the Commerce Department's financial resources, human resources and facilities. The Office of the CFO/ASA is also responsible for coordinating the implementation of governmentwide and departmental management reforms. These reforms include the five primary initiatives established in the President's Management Agenda. The CRS will directly support all five of the governmentwide initiatives on the President's Management Agenda: strategic management of human capital, competitive sourcing, improved financial performance, expanded electronic government initiatives, and the integration of budget and performance. As well, it supports the overarching theme of simplifying and unifying by providing easy access to vital information. Using SAS, senior Commerce executives now have direct, online access to near real-time performance data through an integrated data reporting system. This access allows them to be more effective and efficient in managing their work to meet the objectives of the President's Management Agenda. Through the implementation of the CRS, Commerce was able to re-engineer the department's financial reporting process and, for the first time, deliver a consolidated financial picture to executives' desktops. This system now allows executives to have key information at their fingertips during meetings or when discussing departmental issues with customers and stakeholders. "The Department of Commerce is pleased to receive the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Award for government," said James Taylor, deputy chief financial officer and director of financial management at the Department of Commerce. "We work with financial managers and senior management within the Department of Commerce who are CEOs from the private sector, have led major activities in the private and public sectors, and require information in a way that helps them make sound management decisions. We believe we are taking a great leap in providing that information to them." "Any bureau head that has experience in the private sector or in managing large organizations realizes the need to have consolidated information coming together in one place as opposed to individual reports from separate functions that they are unable to coordinate and combine in a way that's measurable," said Taylor. "Particularly in this day and age, when we have performance metrics we're required to produce, we need to have some way to bring metrics and financial data together in a meaningful manner." As a result of the Department of Commerce's strategic vision to use the CRS solution as a single point of access to a wide range of information, services and applications, SAS recognized the department as a leader in applying business intelligence to drive organizational performance. "SAS is honored to present the U.S. Department of Commerce with the 2004 Enterprise Intelligence Award," said Marianna Suciu, vice president of Government, Latin America and Canada for SAS. "The work of the Office of the CFO/ASA to implement a solution to provide decision makers with a timely and accurate enterprisewide view of information is highly innovative and stands as a model of excellence."