sascom voices - The sascom magazine blog

• What should we post more (or less) of?
  
• What niche topics should we cover in a blog that we might not have considered?
  
• What ideas might you have for a blog post or video series from SAS?
  
• Who from SAS would you like to see blog (or be interviewed on a blog)?
  
• What business and technology blogs do you read, and what lessons can we learn from them?
  
• What would make our blogs more interesting and useful for you?

• "The articles don't expand into the technical aspects. Therefore I can't apply it to my business."
• "I would like to see more detail on case study articles...more insight into what they are using data for, and models and tools they may have come up with."
• "Seems as if many of the articles are sales pitches for SAS products and are written so generically that it is difficult to understand how to pratically apply it to my work. It seems as if the magazine is geared too much toward high-level managers rather than daily SAS users."

• "Sometimes the magazine is too techy for traditional (4Ps) marketing.
• "Sometimes the terminology is too technical for me and therefore causes me to loose interest."
• "There is no marketing spin. Its looks too Technical. Analytics helps marketers; make it user/reader friendly."
• "Many articles are just too long."

1. You will be expected to do something with information.
2. There really is more to know.
3. You will have to know more about knowing.
4. Brain science and decision science are converging.
5. The environment is changing our brain.
6. Information management is the essence of leadership.
7. A more connected world.
8. Math matters.
9. There are significant downsides to not knowing
10. Knowing can change the world.

1. Pricing power: sustainable programs give you opportunities to strengthen your brand and your pricing power.
   
2. Cost savings: Greater operational efficiencies, more efficient use of resources, supply chain optimization, lower costs and lower taxes through sustainability can all contribute to lower costs.
   
3. Employee recruitment and engagement: Sustainability programs can enhance your ability to attract, retain and motivate employees - and contribute to greater employee productivity.
   
4. Market share: Sustainability can improved customer loyalty and lower rates of churn.
   
5. New market entry: With green markets opening up in many areas, sustainability programs can offer enhanced ability to enter new markets and more potential sources of revenue.
   
6. Risk Premiums: Potential benefits include lower market, balance-sheet and operational risks.
   
7. Cost of capital: Sustainability programs can result in lower costs of capital and greater access to capital, financing and insurance.

1. Live blogging at MWSUG, featuring Kirk Paul Lafler
   
2. Analytic truths or analytic myths?
   
3. Revenue management's next frontier? Rate rationalization.
   
4. You become the hunter and they become the prey
   
5. What is social network analysis?

1. In-database analytics in the real world
   
2. Grocery superstars stock up on analytics
   
3. Lost in Translation
   
4. Four steps to realizing your data center of the future
   
5. Outsmart the recession

Oddball t-shirts like those at T-shirt Bordello, but with SAS related goofiness on them. For example:

• For the text miner in you
• count+1;
• SAS log

I hate nothing more than waiting until the fifth paragraph to find out what you want. Say it up front. If you need to sell me, that’s why God invented PowerPoint.

Fundamentally, what I am asking is – why are you doing a data quality project? I believe it’s absolutely essential every member of the project team understands why you are working on improving the quality of your data. Regardless of their roles and responsibilities, everyone should be able answer this question – in two minutes or less.

You may be wondering what information-led community development and loan underwriting have to do with one another. First, they both benefit from having greater information. In the case of community development, more information can be used to develop greater intelligence that can change the perspective of a community from being one of need to being one of opportunity. Loan underwriting can benefit from the sourcing and use of alternative data that can qualify consumers for a loan on their record of making timely cash payments for rent, utilities, phone, and so on.

Armed only with a Kodak Zi8 and a wired clip-on mic, SAS Press Acquisitions Editor Stacey Hamilton filmed seven author interviews in Las Vegas during the M2009 and PBLS conferences. Once she returned to the office, I edited the videos using Apple's iMovie software and then handed them off to our video department, who uploaded them to the SAS YouTube channel.

• The smart thermostat: It's all about data influencing behavior - for the better.
  
• Teleportation: Not what you think, but still very sci fi: moving data from one atom to another.
  
• The personal carbon footprint: Have you calculated yours?
  
• A watchdog for financial products: If this passes, I imagine there might be a little analysis involved.

If there was a time when law enforcement agencies suffered from an information deficit, it's passed. Of the more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States, the vast majority has some form of technology for collecting crime-related data in digital form. The biggest city agencies have sophisticated data warehouses, and even the most provincial are database savvy.

While information sharing requires a cultural change and paradigm shift in the larger public safety community, advanced analytical techniques are available now. The same tools that were being used to prevent people from switching their cellular telephone service provider and to stock shelves at our local supermarkets before Sept. 11 can be used to create safer, healthier communities and enhance homeland security.