Business intelligence software provider SAS today announced the formation of a Profit Optimization Global Practice that will work with customers to integrate their revenue management, CRM, pricing, and distribution tools to consolidate demand data and optimize profitability.

Rather than simply selling tools, the company’s long-term strategy is to build solutions, either in a consulting capacity or working as a partner to integration consultants, such as Accenture or McKinsey & Co. In effect, through the Profit Optimization unit, SAS has hit upon a way to bundle its data analytics expertise in areas such as forecasting, statistics, simulation, data integration, and price optimization, to provide integrated solutions for customers.

The move is expected to take SAS well beyond its largely retail roots into manufacturing and other industries anxious to improve their pricing models and understand their operations more fully, especially in a challenging economy. “It all comes back to supply and demand,” Steve Pinchuk, general manager of Profit Optimization and the leader of the new practice, said in an interview with Managing Automation. SAS’ products can model complex operations and “consider huge amounts of data” to improve decision-making.

By presenting a unified view of “all the components that create demand in a company,” Pinchuk said, SAS can help customers organize, align, and monitor their operations to increase their profit opportunities. He cited a McKinsey statistic that holds that a 10% increase in forecast accuracy will bring at least 2 percentage points’ increase in profit.

In addition to its own products, SAS will integrate those of other vendors, Pinchuk said. He noted that this is a “multiyear vision of where we’re going. We set out to define what we thought our long-term product path would be and leverage on our strengths.”

Primarily large companies in a variety of industries — manufacturing, media, pharmaceuticals, finance, and energy — have come to SAS in search of tools to help them understand supply and demand better. “With the economic downturn, pricing is the key,” Pinchuk said. “It’s the one thing they can control without changing the competition. There’s a lot of potential they can release if they optimize pricing.”

In SAS’s announcement of the new practice, Barry Smith, consultant and former chief scientist for Sabre Holdings and senior VP at American Airlines, said, “Revenue management ensures maximum profitability at the time of sale by factoring in future demand and revenue potential. These techniques, most valuable in periods of high demand, are becoming equally important in low-demand periods by directing marketing initiatives to fill gaps.”

Though most of the new unit’s efforts will result in custom solutions for specific customers, Pinchuk didn’t discount the possibility that products will materialize for broader audiences.

In addition to forming the Profit Optimization Global Practice, SAS today announced its acquisition of IDeaS Revenue Optimization, a leader in revenue optimization tools for the hospitality industry. Pinchuk pointed to IDeaS’ superior user interface for the hotel industry and its successful implementation of the software-as-a-service model as key strengths. While SAS intends to keep IDeaS focused on its vertical expertise, Pinchuk said he anticipates being able to tap into IDeaS expertise and R&D as the new practice branches out into new industries.