Latest Press Releases-News

Qualex Still Top BI-Ninja Re-seller in the US

July 6, 2004 — Clare Howden, CEO of Ninja Ltd says:”We are going through a period of expansion within the US at present but Qualex, with their long Ninja history of excellent service and first rate technical support, is still our top re-seller in the US.”

Qualex Consulting Services is a premier SAS software solutions services company and SAS Gold Alliance partner. Qualex has worked closely with SAS for several years as the leading implementation partner in the gaming industry and has taken an active role in the development of the SAS gaming solutions. Qualex brings to the gaming industry experience from a wide array of industries that include financial services, insurance, telecommunications, energy, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, retail, healthcare and government agencies since 1995.

SAS showcases partner successes, offers closer ties with technology

Customer Solutions and Alliances Division strengthens relationships

MONTREAL (May 10, 2004) — Today, at the SAS Users Group International (SUGI) conference in Montreal, the Customer Solutions and Alliances Division (CSA) of SAS, the leader in business intelligence solutions, presented partner awards to acknowledge the accomplishments of SAS’ North and South American Alliance partners.

The CSA Division is chartered with the successful sale and delivery of SAS solutions. “SAS is an organization dedicated to its customers and one that understands the value partners bring to the delivery of SAS solutions,” said Don McDougall, vice president of the CSA Division at SAS. “We recognize that customers need comprehensive enterprise solutions, which encompass hardware, software, services and knowledge.” SAS platform partners ensure that the customer has the best IT environment suited for their organizational needs; services offered by SAS partners complement, extend and integrate with SAS’ own; and the knowledge of specific industries available from SAS partners adds the domain expertise joint customers require. “Alliance partners are fundamental to the growth and success of SAS. 2004 is opening numerous doors of opportunity for SAS and the relationships cultivated by the CSA Division are key to the fulfillment of those opportunities.”

SAS recognizes the rewards and benefits obtained by expanding the SAS knowledge base and coupling SAS’ service, expertise and complementary product offerings with partner strengths. “HP has worked with SAS for more than 20 years, ensuring that our customers have constant access to the best technology offered,” said Bruno Castejon, director of business application solutions, Enterprise Storage and Servers, HP. “SAS 9.1 qualification and certification on HP Integrity servers on Itanium is the most recent example of our commitment to address the most demanding business intelligence and process workloads. HP and SAS are empowering enterprises to easily respond to changing business intelligence and process requirements by providing a complete and tested selection of hardware, software, and services with a demonstrated ability to work well together.”

Also at SUGI, the CSA Division launched the SAS®9 Alliance Adventure. Through the SAS®9 Alliance Adventure, SAS offers its partners timely information and training on SAS®9 technology, thus demonstrating SAS’ full commitment to these valued allies. The Adventure will feature monthly activities and communications to provide partners with the latest technology information and will have special awards and events at major SAS venues throughout 2004 and into 2005.

The CSA Division presented the Longstanding SUGI Sponsor awards to HP and IBM for most consecutive years as SUGI Sponsors. SAS also recognized some of its smaller North and South American partners at the Gold and Silver level with awards for:
Most revenue leveraged by a Gold/Silver partner: Zencos Consulting, LLC
Most SAS training completed: Qualex Consulting Services, Inc.
Best new partner: Ermas Consulting
Best Internal Marketing to SAS: ThotWave Technologies, LLC
Largest number SAS certified employees: Venturi Technology Partners

“Our partnership with SAS helps solidify our offerings and technologies offered to our customers — who are the ultimate winners,” said Greg Nelson president and CEO at ThotWave Technologies LLC. “We have had a relationship with the SAS Alliance for almost two decades with a seasoned staff of software engineering professionals, designers and program managers. Through that time we have consistently witnessed SAS’ commitment to a strong partnership and we are delighted to be such a respected part of the SAS ecosystem.”

“We have an excellent working relationship with SAS through the SAS Alliance program. The information, support and training SAS offers its partners provide exceptional value to our organization. The SAS Alliance is an ideal compliment to the strength of technology SAS provides to its customers.” said Clive Pearson, president of Qualex Consulting Services, Inc. “We work with SAS on a wide variety of projects representing nearly every industry. Having such a close partnership with SAS gives our consultants an extra edge to assure our customers’ success.”

The announcement came at the 29th annual SUGI conference. More than 3,000 SAS users from around the world attended this year’s SUGI in Montreal.

ABOUT SAS
SAS is the market leader in providing a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create true enterprise intelligence. SAS solutions are used at more than 40,000 sites — including 96 of the top 100 companies on the FORTUNE Global 500® — to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organizations forward. SAS is the only vendor that completely integrates leading data warehousing, analytics and traditional BI applications to create intelligence from massive amounts of data. For nearly three decades, SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW® .

SAS showcases partner successes, offers closer ties with technology

Customer Solutions and Alliances Division strengthens relationships

MONTREAL (May 10, 2004) — Today, at the SAS Users Group International (SUGI) conference in Montreal, the Customer Solutions and Alliances Division (CSA) of SAS, the leader in business intelligence solutions, presented partner awards to acknowledge the accomplishments of SAS’ North and South American Alliance partners.

The CSA Division is chartered with the successful sale and delivery of SAS solutions. “SAS is an organization dedicated to its customers and one that understands the value partners bring to the delivery of SAS solutions,” said Don McDougall, vice president of the CSA Division at SAS. “We recognize that customers need comprehensive enterprise solutions, which encompass hardware, software, services and knowledge.” SAS platform partners ensure that the customer has the best IT environment suited for their organizational needs; services offered by SAS partners complement, extend and integrate with SAS’ own; and the knowledge of specific industries available from SAS partners adds the domain expertise joint customers require. “Alliance partners are fundamental to the growth and success of SAS. 2004 is opening numerous doors of opportunity for SAS and the relationships cultivated by the CSA Division are key to the fulfillment of those opportunities.”

SAS recognizes the rewards and benefits obtained by expanding the SAS knowledge base and coupling SAS’ service, expertise and complementary product offerings with partner strengths. “HP has worked with SAS for more than 20 years, ensuring that our customers have constant access to the best technology offered,” said Bruno Castejon, director of business application solutions, Enterprise Storage and Servers, HP. “SAS 9.1 qualification and certification on HP Integrity servers on Itanium is the most recent example of our commitment to address the most demanding business intelligence and process workloads. HP and SAS are empowering enterprises to easily respond to changing business intelligence and process requirements by providing a complete and tested selection of hardware, software, and services with a demonstrated ability to work well together.”

Also at SUGI, the CSA Division launched the SAS®9 Alliance Adventure. Through the SAS®9 Alliance Adventure, SAS offers its partners timely information and training on SAS®9 technology, thus demonstrating SAS’ full commitment to these valued allies. The Adventure will feature monthly activities and communications to provide partners with the latest technology information and will have special awards and events at major SAS venues throughout 2004 and into 2005.

The CSA Division presented the Longstanding SUGI Sponsor awards to HP and IBM for most consecutive years as SUGI Sponsors. SAS also recognized some of its smaller North and South American partners at the Gold and Silver level with awards for:
Most revenue leveraged by a Gold/Silver partner: Zencos Consulting, LLC
Most SAS training completed: Qualex Consulting Services, Inc.
Best new partner: Ermas Consulting
Best Internal Marketing to SAS: ThotWave Technologies, LLC
Largest number SAS certified employees: Venturi Technology Partners

“Our partnership with SAS helps solidify our offerings and technologies offered to our customers — who are the ultimate winners,” said Greg Nelson president and CEO at ThotWave Technologies LLC. “We have had a relationship with the SAS Alliance for almost two decades with a seasoned staff of software engineering professionals, designers and program managers. Through that time we have consistently witnessed SAS’ commitment to a strong partnership and we are delighted to be such a respected part of the SAS ecosystem.”

“We have an excellent working relationship with SAS through the SAS Alliance program. The information, support and training SAS offers its partners provide exceptional value to our organization. The SAS Alliance is an ideal compliment to the strength of technology SAS provides to its customers.” said Clive Pearson, president of Qualex Consulting Services, Inc. “We work with SAS on a wide variety of projects representing nearly every industry. Having such a close partnership with SAS gives our consultants an extra edge to assure our customers’ success.”

The announcement came at the 29th annual SUGI conference. More than 3,000 SAS users from around the world attended this year’s SUGI in Montreal.

ABOUT SAS
SAS is the market leader in providing a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create true enterprise intelligence. SAS solutions are used at more than 40,000 sites — including 96 of the top 100 companies on the FORTUNE Global 500® — to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organizations forward. SAS is the only vendor that completely integrates leading data warehousing, analytics and traditional BI applications to create intelligence from massive amounts of data. For nearly three decades, SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW® .

Qualex consultants to present at SUGI 29

MARTINSVILLE, VA, March 2, 2004 — Qualex Consulting Services, Inc. is pleased to announce that two of Qualex personnel will be presenting papers at this year’s SUGI in Montreal.
Alan Leach will present “CATALOGER: Updated for SAS 9”. Cataloger – one of Qualex’s SAS software tools – enables users to easily documents SAS applications; view, search, and compare SAS catalog entries and data sets; and much more.

“CATALOGER: Updated for SAS 9″ will be presented on Monday, May 10, from 1:30 – 1:50 p.m., in room 510. View paper
Zeph Stemle will present “Building a Purchasing Data Warehouse for SRM from Disparate Procurement Systems.” SAS’ Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) solution offers organizations the tools to analyze and manage purchasing information. This paper discusses a solution for gathering procurement data from several disparate sources and storing it in a common data warehouse on a Win2000 server. The solution is fully automated and uses SAS/Warehouse Administrator.
“Building a Purchasing Data Warehouse for SRM from Disparate Procurement Systems” will be presented on Tuesday, May 11, from 4:30 – 4:50 p.m. in room 518. View paper

More information:
Qualex Consulting Services, Inc. — http://www.qlx.com

SAS selects Qualex Consulting Services for new Jump Start program

MARTINSVILLE, VA, June 17, 2002 — Qualex Consulting Services, Inc. announced today its selection by SAS Institute Inc. as one of only eighteen members of the Institute’s newly launched Jump Start Program.

The Jump Start program offers SAS customers one half day of free consulting services provided by SAS Alliance Members. As one of the few Gold Alliance members, Qualex is well positioned to provide the quality and experience for the Jump Start program that SAS customers expect.

“We have always worked very closely with SAS to provide customers the very best in SAS software development,” says Clive Pearson, President of Qualex. “The new Jump Start Program takes that relationship to a more effective level. Everyone will benefit.”

Michael Gilman, Chief Technology Officer, concurs. “I am excited about the Jump Start Program,” says Gilman. “In essence this is the SAS stamp of approval. Their message to their customers is that they can count on companies like Qualex to provide the highest level of expertise and service.”

About SAS
SAS is the market leader in providing a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create true enterprise intelligence. SAS solutions are used at more than 38,000 sites — including 99 of the top 100 businesses on the Fortune 500 — to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organizations forward. SAS is the only vendor that completely integrates leading data warehousing, analytics and traditional BI applications to create intelligence from massive amounts of data. For more than 25 years, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know®.

About Qualex Consulting Services, Inc.
As a SAS Quality Partner for seven years and currently a Gold Alliance Member, Qualex continues to be a premier SAS consulting organization. Qualex’s close relationship with SAS gives Qualex priority training on the latest SAS technologies and strategic access to SAS resources. This in turn helps Qualex provide its customers with cutting-edge solutions tomeet their needs.

Qualex has provided SAS expertise in several major industry sectors, including automotive, publishing, telecommunications, energy, health care, pharmaceutical, and government. Current and past clients include, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Bristol Myers-Squibb, EMI Music Distribution, Ernst & Young, Levi Strauss, Lucent Technologies, Sprint, Washington Post Interactive, and Williams Energy.

US-Based Qualex Appointed VAR for BI-Ninja
Martinsville, Virginia—(Business Wire)—Feb. 19, 2001— Qualex Consulting Services Inc., a US-based SAS Alliance Gold Member, has been appointed a Value Added Reseller for Ninja, a state-of-the-art packaged OLAP tool for SAS business users.

The deal has been concluded as part of South African-based InfoActive’s strategy to recruit a global network of Value Added Resellers to distribute and service Ninja to all existing and potential users of SAS.

Director of InfoActive, John Day, explains the reason for their selection: “In order to address the full potential of the US market, we needed to form a relationship with a US-based company who has a national presence. Qualex has a reputation for quality and delivery, and its offices throughout the US make it ideally suited to distribute, implement and support a product such as Ninja. Qualex also offers a full range of SAS implementation skills and services.”

According to Clive J. Pearson of Qualex, this will enhance their offerings to clients with the opportunity to include this state-of-the-art OLAP tool. “It will further leverage the client’s investment in SAS technology and reduce the development time to implement a robust analysis and reporting application.”

Founded in 1995, Qualex currently employs over 35 highly skilled SAS consultants and its many projects have been mostly at Fortune 500 companies.

“We look forward to working closely with InfoActive to promote and deploy numerous highly successful Ninja implementations. We feel as two highly regarded SAS organizations, our association will provide a winning combination for both companies, SAS and most importantly, our clients,” says Pearson.

Developed by Pioneer Software in New Zealand, Ninja provides SAS users with a world-class front-end to the full range of SAS capabilities with zero programming effort. Ninja offers a comprehensive feature list which rivals other off-the-shelf OLAP suites, including features such as tracking facilities, allowing users to optimize the performance of underlying data structures. This tool can be plugged in and information can be accessed within days or even hours of installation.

Evolved in close consultation with business use in every major industry sector, the resulting product “thinks as a business person would, with the flexibility to meet all the most common OLAP business requirements.”

Qualex and SOLID Partners Join Forces to tackle the SAP Challenge
Cary, N.C. — April 5, 1999 — Announcing a new joint venture between Qualex Consulting Services, Inc of the US and SOLID Partners of Europe to form the strongest possible team to take on the challenges of accessing and understanding data from SAP R/3 using the SAS® System software. As a leading, high-profile SAS Alliance Gold Member in the US, Qualex provides an expert workforce in a wide variety of leading SAS software products and works with a diverse clientele portfolio. SOLID Partners is a leading SAS Quality Partner in Europe providing years of real world experience using SAS in the SAP R/3 arena throughout Europe. Additionally, SOLID Partners has worked directly with SAS Europe to develop and maturate the SAS Access to R/3 product. This joint venture provides the most formidable team to lead the charge in accessing and understanding SAP R/3 data using SAS software throughout North America.

Setting up the SAS Access to R/3 tool is only the beginning to really using the data provided by SAP R/3. The true challenge arises when trying to get a good understanding and provide real-world solutions from the hundreds to thousands of detailed tables from the various business modules that make up SAP. The new Qualex/SOLID Partners team can provide the experience and skill to transform this vast source of data into useful business information.
To get more information or to set up an appointment:
Email us at info@qlx.com or call us at 877-887-4SAS (4727).
Learn more about SOLID Partners at http://www.solidpartners.be

The National Committee For Quality Assurance and Qualex Consulting Services Help America Choose A Better Health Plan

SAS helps employers and consumers choose higher quality managed health-care plans. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care by assessing and reporting on the quality of health plans. It successfully switched to SAS software to collect and process health care performance data submitted annually by more than 400 health plans.

“We needed a flexible system to support the collection, analysis, and reporting of performance data submitted by health plans,” said Pete Frawley, NCQA’s Director of Information Systems. “The challenge was to manage in the space of a few weeks the annual collection of quality-performance data files, including consumer survey satisfaction data. Health plans and satisfaction survey vendors submitted the data as Microsoft Excel worksheets and ASCII flat files. Plans submitted more than 3,000 files, which NCQA processed to validate the data, generate reports, and create extract files for information applications such as NCQA’s CD-ROM health plan information product, Quality Compass. An added challenge was to integrate HEDIS data with NCQA’s health plan accreditation program.

“We turned to the SAS System for the software and Qualex Consulting Services for the expertise to make it all work,” said Frawley.

Through products such as Quality Compass and its health plan accreditation program, NCQA provides audited performance data that allows purchasers and consumers of managed health care to distinguish among plans based on quality as well as price.

NCQA collects HEDIS (Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set) data, a set of standardized performance measures related to significant public health issues such as cancer, heart disease, smoking, asthma, and diabetes. HEDIS also includes a health plan member satisfaction survey.

The HEDIS Data Collection System (DCS), the SAS software application designed by NCQA and Qualex Consulting Services, was able to track and process HEDIS data submissions and make the data available quickly for analyses such as NCQA’s annual State of Managed Care report. The data was also processed for use in health plan report cards designed to compare plans based on quality.

Qualex Consulting Services implemented a solution with SAS/AF and Frame, using SAS/SHARE running on a Windows NT workstation as the server component, with Windows 95 and 98 workstations as clients. By using SAS/Share, the application allows NCQA’s health plan account managers to receive, load, process, validate, and report the health plan data submissions concurrently. The system loaded the data directly into SAS data sets designed for ease of analysis and reporting. NCQA processed the health plan performance data in less than half the time it took using a prior system developed in Access and Visual Basic as front ends to an SQL Server database. In the end, the system cost a third of the previous application, yet brought with it dramatic gains in efficiency and productivity.

“The system we had the previous year was too cumbersome to meet our objectives to turn around data quickly with maximum flexibility,” said Frawley. “It was set up as a fully-normalized database that might have been great as a banking transaction system, but what we needed was a system that allowed us to quickly analyze and report data, with flexibility to make a lot of iterative changes to programming code as we learned more about the data and implemented policy changes.

“We had previous experience with the SAS System and knew that it was the optimal choice for analysis and reporting. With the added capability of SAS/AF to automate functions such as loading and processing data by running modular SAS code, we decided to build the whole system as a seamless SAS application. An added goal was to be able to maintain and develop the system ourselves in future years.”

NCQA didn’t have the SAS/AF expertise to build the system, so they hired Qualex Consulting Services to take advantage of the extensive AF programming experience of Senior Consultant Chris Roper. “Chris and the other Qualex consultants were able to meet every challenge that arose and exceeded all my expectations for responsiveness,” Frawley said. “They were totally committed to the success of this project and showed unparalleled professionalism and dedication.”