SAS/Saratoga Partner to Measure Workforce Performance

SAS Institute, a market leader in data warehousing and decision support, announced a partnership with Saratoga Institute, a leading source worldwide of human capital benchmarking and performance measurements. Through this partnership, Saratoga's online benchmark metrics, Saratoga OnLine, are integrated into the latest release of HR Vision software, the SAS solution for human capital management. This allows companies to measure the performance of their workforce as a whole.

The availability of these external benchmarks within HR Vision allows organizations to compare to industry norms their aggregate return-oninvestment per employee, turnover rate, cost-per-hire, and other key performance indicators to help them make sound strategic business decisions.

"HR Vision was recently selected by Human Resource Executive as one of the top 10 human resource products for 1999," says Margo Stutesman, North American HR solutions program manager at SAS. "By offering customers the ability to compare internal HR metrics with the external benchmarking and performance measurements that Saratoga provides, the value of workforce planning is even higher. The addition of these benchmarks will continue to distinguish HR Vision as a leader in human capital management."

Customers such as Pacific Gas and Electric, one of the largest combination natural gas and electric utilities in the United States, are turning to SAS for their workforce planning solutions. "Understanding the demographics of your organization and being able to easily access information, both internal and external, are essential to good workforce planning," said Russ Jackson, Pacific Gas and Electric's vice president of human resources. Incorporating Saratoga's Web-based benchmarks is a critical component in delivering a robust analytical system that organizations like Pacific Gas and Electric need for understanding their workforce.

"We have long been advocates for measurement and for improving workforce productivity by enhancing the quality of the workplace," said Dr. Steve McElfresh, president and CEO of Saratoga Institute. "SAS has been singularly associated with both. Their solutions are broadly associated with advanced measurement and analysis, and they are widely recognized for having created a quality work environment for their own staff, which is second to none. We are pleased to be associated with SAS HR solutions and will continue to develop our relationship with SAS."

About HR Vision

HR Vision gives organizations the power to understand and leverage their human capital assets by providing key human resource metrics with custom reporting and analysis capabilities. The most recent version allows custom reports to be distributed throughout the organization via the Web and gives users the ability to navigate through various levels of information directly from a browser. These enhancements, coupled with new metrics and advanced analytical capabilities, support an organization's need for strategic decision making.

About Saratoga Institute

Saratoga Institute, a subsidiary of Interim Services Inc, soon to be known as Spherion, is a global leader in providing a unique, comprehensive approach to the study of human capital management - that is, maximizing the talent of a company's people. Using this approach, companies can track and benchmark the cost of recruiting, hiring and turnover of employees, and most importantly, the ROI of human capital. Leading Saratoga Institute is Dr. Jac Fitz-enz, founder and chairman, and one of the world's leading authorities on human resource management. The author of six books, Dr. Fitz-enz pioneered the field of human capital benchmarking and performance measurement. Visit the company's Website at www.saratoga-institute.com.

About SAS

SAS, one of the world's largest privately held software companies, is a leader in decision support and data warehousing, providing integrated enterprise information-delivery and e-business solutions. Founded in 1976, the company markets packaged business solutions for vertical industry and departmental applications, as well as an integrated suite of software tools and consulting services. These allow departments and agencies to transform the wide variety of data within their organizations into information that business users and researchers need to make better decisions. SAS software and services are used at more than 33,000 business, government and university sites in 110 countries. SAS' 1999 revenues totaled $1.02 billion. Please visit the SAS Web site: www.sas.com.

Contact SAS Institute, Pamela Meek, 919-677-8000 x5596