As we near the heights of this festive holiday season, children have thoughts of sugar plums dancing in their heads and adults look forward to a long winter’s nap, but we elves of the SAS media relations team reflect on the fruits of a year’s worth of labor. This is the time of year when we gather compilations of the coverage generated about this great place to work and a developer of the world’s most popular analytics.

So, as we head into “The 12 days of Christmas” I’ve asked each member of the Cary-based PR team to tell me which of the hundreds of articles in newspapers, magazines or web sites in 2013 they thought was best. The results include story topics that range from big data to tax fraud to the NBA and, of course, our much-celebrated SAS workplace. There's something here for everyone to enjoy!

1. The NY Times is the paper of record and it believes that 37-year-old SAS is doing a remarkable job of competing with young startup companies in unstructured data, new computing platforms, cloud computing and big data. “The nimble dance of a rich legacy software company.”
2. A better understanding of customers is a big priority for many, and USA Today reported how the Orlando Magic rolled out SAS analytics across its business, including efforts to increase season ticket renewals and track concession sales. “NBA Reprograms How It Makes Money Off Fans.”
3. Popular Internet portal The Huffington Post found out why SAS’s heralded corporate culture inspires such worker loyalty. Annual SAS staff turnover is 4% when other tech firms lose 20%. The HuffPo noted our child-friendly workplace and time-saving conveniences. “8 Reasons Why Employees Never Want To Leave This Amazing Company.”
4. Financial companies are a huge part of the SAS user community and leading insurance industry journal Property Casualty 360 explores how SAS anti-fraud analytics, a framework applicable to many industries, help CNA sort out valid claims from bogus ones. “A Look inside Fraud Detection.”
5. When the Associated Press sought to confirm that traditional cash registers are on their way out, it found validation with the SAS retail practice. In a story picked up by dozens or more news outlets around the world, a SAS exec says customers demand faster, more convenient checkout. “Cash Register Rings Its Last Sale.”
6. SAS’s tagline, “The Power to Know,” was the conclusion of this InformationWeek news story. It covered the year’s biggest SAS technology announcement, including new version of the core SAS platform, High-Performance Analytics and Customer Intelligence. “SAS makes triple play.”
7. SAS plays an industry-leading role in pharmaceuticals to help the industry unlock clinical trial insight to benefit researchers and consumers. Forbes chronicled SAS work on a data analysis environment where multiple pharmas can use anonymous clinical trial information. “SAS and GSK pull big pharma into big data collaboration.”
8. SAS’s Chief Technical Officer helps Forbes cut through the hype of the latest industry buzzwords—Big Data—and describes how organizations can get past meaningless terms and find real value. “SAS CTO on IT and Big Data Analytics.”
9. The US Internal Revenue Service uses SAS fraud detection software to run tax returns through complicated algorithms to ensure that they are legitimate, according to the Wall Street Journal. The article says IRS fraud costs the agency $385 billion a year. “IRS, States Call on IBM, LexisNexis, SAS to Fight Tax Fraud.” (Registration required.)

I look back and think that SAS PR had some great 2013 news results, but I have to admit that our jobs are made a lot easier since we promote such a great company with powerful technology. The SAS publicity team owes our technologists a big “thank you!”