Local government impact of rising group medical and insurance costs, and what can be done

Bill Coleman
Bill Coleman|January 24, 2012

The single most costly employee benefit for any organization is health insurance, and the price is going up. From 2003-2009, the costs per hour worked for employee health insurance increased from $1.03 to $2.00. These costs continue to increase from 5%-7% per year. The reality is that employee health insurance costs will continue [...]

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Contagion: Wash hands after reading

Trent Smith
Trent Smith|October 25, 2011

For the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of serving on the communications team of the National Collaborative for Bio-Preparedness (NCB-P), of which SAS is a partner and the analytics provider. That experience was heavy on my mind as I recently watched the film Contagion. I may drop some minor [...]

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BI software may be most painful local government purchase

Bill Coleman
Bill Coleman|September 23, 2011

Over my 32 year career in local government as a city and county manager I was faced with many difficult decisions during budget deliberations. Setting tax and utility rates, adding head count, determining compensation and benefits, calculating the appropriate mix of debt and cash for funding  capital projects…these were all [...]

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New local government charge: Do Less with Less

Bill Coleman
Bill Coleman|September 12, 2011

The downturn in the economy beginning in 2008 and continuing even to now has put tremendous pressure on local governments to do “less with less”. In the past when economic downturns caused service level cut backs the cry was to do “more with less”. The idea was to identify ways [...]

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The role of analytics in bio-preparedness

Robert Latham
Robert Latham|January 26, 2011

I have recently had the great opportunity to be a part of a very special project called the North Carolina Bio-Preparedness Collaborative (NCB-Prepared) It is a public-private partnership that includes the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), North Carolina State University, and SAS, with support from the US [...]

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Fusion centers & the mail bomb plot

Michael Protz
Michael Protz|November 20, 2010

The recent mail bomb attempt on US-bound cargo and commercial airliners is another reminder of the terrorist threat the United States continues to face. While there may be a lull in the news cycles from time to time, the threat is there every day. A key component in detecting and [...]

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