SAS speeds into e-gov arena

Federal, state and local governments seeking to bring more services electronically

to their constituencies have another place to turn following last week's

launch of SAS Institute Inc.'s e-Government Solutions program.

The program's focus is on helping government clients deliver information

and services electronically, said Jeff Babcock, vice president of SAS Institute's

public-sector sales and marketing group.

"All levels of government have some [internal] pressure ... and externally

from citizens and constituencies waiting for them to do these things," Babcock

said. "It's a different form of Y2K — with a more positive form of pressure

for them to act quickly."

And SAS acted quickly to put the program in place, having it done and ready

for launch in one week, Babcock said. "We wanted to work at Internet speed,

and we had seven people each with a different task" ranging from contracts

to implementations. "We started making contacts. We've already had seven

solid bites, and two are very hot," he said.

The program offers four complementary solutions:

* e-Delivery automates information sharing and customizes delivery channels.

*e-Optimization streamlines World Wide Web delivery.

*e-Security helps identify misuse and abuses of IT resources and services.

*e-Workflow automates the business process of information delivery.

Babcock said the cost of implementation depends on the size of the server

that SAS uses in an organization. For example, a small-server, e-Delivery

rollout would cost $75,000 and includes the software, a week with the SAS

implementations team on-site and six days of training. If the customer is

not satisfied after that week, all projects, regardless of size, come with

a money-back guarantee.