SAS has updated its business intelligence platform, strengthening its analytics, data visualisation and data management capabilities. It has also agreed to acquire natural language processing vendor Teragram.

SAS 9.2 will help customers derive value from their vast pools of organisational data faster, the company said, as the advanced analytics tools and presentation capabilities make it easier for all employees to evaluate that data.

"It helps companies gather and analyse data and share intelligence for quicker, more accurate business decisions," said Jim Davis, SAS's chief marketing officer.

SAS, along with MicroStrategy and Information Builders, face a uncertain times in the turbulent BI market, as all three struggle to make a virtue of their independence. The acquisition of the three largest public BI vendors, Cognos, Business Objects and Hyperion (by IBM, SAP and Oracle) has redefined the BI landscape.

But Davis insisted that its privately-held status allows SAS to deliver BI innovations. "Businesses burned by technology vendors more interested in stock prices than customers will appreciate SAS’ unrelenting focus on innovation and meeting customer needs," he said.

Meanwhile SAS has strengthened its text mining capabilities with the acquisition of Teregram. Teragram’s natural language processing technologies help companies improve their ability to search documents, through analysing the linguistic relationships between words.