To reduce administering stress in managing $3.3 billion college grant and tax-advantaged savings programs, the College Foundation Inc. of North Carolina (CFNC) has switched to SAS (News - Alert) Business Analytics to use business analytics software and services to deliver financial aid on time to the right people and schools, while ensuring strict accountability for annual expenditures.

This initiative is supported by North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) to help students plan, apply and pay for college.

Jim Avett, president and CEO of CFNC said that they took two to five days to provide information before they used SAS, and sometimes the accuracy was less than it needed.

“Today, accurate reports go out within a few hours. The results have been phenomenal. We’ve reduced expenses, allowing high-value IT staff to focus on what they do best while delivering information to the right people,” Avett added.

Avett said that they were also impressed with the implementation process performed by SAS and its partner Zencos.

“We’re very pleased – on many levels. SAS managed the whole project and brought in Zencos. We were very comfortable that deadlines would be met and that our solution would up and running on time,” he added.

The SAS Business Analytics Framework combines the strengths of SAS solutions and technologies with SAS' commitment to innovation, continuous technical support, professional services, training and partnerships.

“We advise policymakers and schools, who frequently ask us for information,” said Steve Brooks, Executive Director of NCSEAA. “Increasing ad-hoc requests, including what-if scenarios, increased our demands upon CFNC for reports. With SAS, I couldn’t be more pleased with the quality of data and the ability of CFNC to deliver information promptly and accurately to support policy recommendations – it’s been a great tool.”

According to Brooks, SAS Business Analytics has significantly increased the efficiency of delivering information and raised confidence in the forecasts that help determine annual funding for state financial aid programs.

In other news, SAS recently announced that it has been placed in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner (News - Alert) Inc., an industry analyst firm, in their recent report titled Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms.