Cary, N.C.-based SAS this week confirmed plans to close two regional training centers in September. Last week, the company said it would eliminate 100 marketing positions as part of an effort to consolidate its U.S. sales operations. In May, the company eliminated 72 inside sales positions.

Jim Davis, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at SAS, said the actions stemmed from the decision several months ago to merge the company's U.S. commercial sales group with another group that manages sales to government, education and Latin American customers. He characterized the moves as a "reallocation of resources" and not a reduction in head count.

All of the employees whose positions were eliminated were offered the chance to apply for other positions within sales, Davis added. Of the 72 employees in the inside sales group, all but 16 did not find new positions within the company. While 13 of the 16 employees were qualified for new positions, they opted for retirement or severance, he said.

Davis said the company is adding positions, has 178 openings now, and expects to end the year with an increase in head count. SAS has about 10,000 employees. Over the past six months, the company has seen new sales grow by 21 percent, he said.

"It is not our intent to reduce numbers [of employees]," Davis said. "It is our intent to get more people out in front of customers. We had a lot of marketing resources, probably more so than most people have in our industry."