Overview of Terminology

[FK1]

Hello Everyone,

First of all, I know, this is not exactly a question regarding some programming issue, but I thought, the cracks among you, could help me anyways, since I did not know better where to ask the following questions:

I am trying to explain to my collegue how SAS is structured from a sales point of view, but also from a technical point of view. 

For example, to the best of my knowledge, a "Bundle" is a set of "Modules" (STAT, ETS, IML, etc.) that SAS collects together in order to sell it to a customer. Each "Bundle" consits of  "Functions"/"Procedures". But then, what is the difference between a "Product" and a "Bundle" ?

When I go to www.sas.com, I am offered a list of "Products" and "Solutions" and "Technology". Also, e.g. SAS Customer Intelligence is a so-called "Solution Suite", consisting of different "Solutions"...

I think, you get the point: there is a myriad of terms that are somehow interrelated, but, at least to me, this is (partially) very confusing...

Generally spoken:

is there an overview/taxonomy of all the different terms and their meaning/definiton that are described by  "bundle", "Product", "Solution", "Module", "Technology" , etc. ?

Thank's in advance,

FK1

[Patrick · Accepted solution]

@FK1 

This is a 100% SAS question so why not ask here. My take on it - and I get also often confused - is that the terminology is somewhat overlapping.

Below are my made up "definitions" and they can be wrong.

1. Product has a technical focus. Each product can get licensed and installed separately.

2. Solution has a business focus. It consists of a set of solution required products for it to work (technically) plus additional IP like process definitions, data models, scripts, UI's etc.

3. Bundle has a sales focus. A bundle is a collection of products sold together at a bundle price. A bundle normally provides capabilities for specific technical areas (i.e.Data Management).

4. A Solution Suite is a collection of multiple solutions within a common business area like Risk or Customer Intelligence. I don't know if this is always true but the Solution suites I know of use a common platform for all solutions within a suite. So to add a second solution from a suite you can add to an already existing platform.

Let's see what others have to say. I'm sure I've got some things wrong so here may chance to learn something. Thank you for your question.

[FK1]

Hello @Patrick ,

this is really a great foundation to deeper dive into it! Thank's a lot for it!

It definitely helped me already to clarify things.

Just one little question of understanding:

2. Solution has a business focus. It consists of a set of solution required products for it to work (technically) plus additional IP like process definitions, data models, scripts, UI's etc.

What does "IP" stand for?

Let's see, if there is any further input form others into this topic!

[Tom]

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@FK1 wrote:

Hello @Patrick ,

this is really a great foundation to deeper dive into it! Thank's a lot for it!

It definitely helped me already to clarify things.

Just one little question of understanding:

2. Solution has a business focus. It consists of a set of solution required products for it to work (technically) plus additional IP like process definitions, data models, scripts, UI's etc.

What does "IP" stand for?

Let's see, if there is any further input form others into this topic!

---

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property

[FK1]

A short follow-up:
I contacted SAS Tech Support and asked them for an overview of terminology. However, they also replied, that this does not exist and pointed me to https://www.sas.com/de_de/software/all-products.html

[Patrick]

LOL!

Thanks for sharing.