SAS is an American born company, with an experience in analytics that spans over 43 years. The company has been active in Romania for 12 years, offering services in the niche area of advanced analytics to companies in a variety of industries, from energy and utilities to banking, telecommunications or manufacturing among several others.
What solutions does SAS offer tailored to energy companies and how relevant is the sector in your portfolio?
Approximately 10% of our business is currently accounted for by the energy sector, and the demand is mostly driven by energy distributors. Other sub-sectors that are starting to show interest in our technologies are transportation and production. The solutions that we make available are varied and have the potential to generate double digit cost optimization.
For instance, we provide solutions that assist with energy demand forecast - storing electricity is very expensive so it is key for companies to accurately estimate the quantities needed. We are also able to estimate losses caused by infrastructure or fraudulent activities. Such projects already involve huge amounts of historical data but we also embed weather data, we can add if available macroeconomic data, such as the poverty index, the level of residential development, or investments made by companies in the area that are going to influence the regional demand.
How does Romania compare to its neighbors in terms of new technology adoption?
Romania has a slight delay compared to other countries in the region such as the Czech Republic or Hungary for instance. The energy industry overall is rather slow in adopting new technologies and the reason most often is simply inertia, companies prefer to use older technologies that have a history of proven stability.
However, in recent years we have seen an increased interest in new technologies and encountered more knowledgeable partners of discussion. Companies should allow themselves to be visionaries in this matter because the leaps in technology can add to their efficiency and generate remarkable increases in their revenue.
What are some of the global technological trends that can become game changers for the energy industry?
Accessing data has become faster and much easier even in areas where it was previously not possible. IoT for example uses sensors that can collect complex data about a company’s assets and transmit it in real time, even when we are talking about remote or difficult to access locations. The key is to contextualize this data and apply intelligent filters, which is where analytics come in.
Our capabilities in terms of text mining make it possible to identify particular entities, relationships between them, the context of a discussion and even the feelings around it. We can identify how a company fares compared to its peers in a specific region, how its products are perceived and draw conclusions about what works well and can be replicated to other regions or areas where improvements are necessary.
What are the key objectives for the company going forward?
SAS is already present in 145 countries and is always on the lookout for new opportunities. On an international level, the focus at the moment is to develop the teams that are already on the ground. In Romania, our ambition is to grow at a double-digit rate in the coming years, a reasonable expectation based on how we have seen the interest in the market evolving.
