Let’s look at the term “accessible” and how it relates to the SAS world. Accessible output is output that can be read by a screen reader to someone with low or no vision, visualized by someone with low vision or color blindness, or navigated by someone with limited mobility. In
Some would say that it's impossible for blind users to see charts and graphs. Those same people might have once said it was impossible for the visually impaired to see the particles that comprise an atom, or galaxies that are billions of light years away. Innovation would prove them wrong
As the application stack supporting big data has matured, it has demonstrated the feasibility of ingesting, persisting and analyzing potentially massive data sets that originate both within and outside of conventional enterprise boundaries. But what does this mean from a data governance perspective?
Si se desea comprender cómo se desarrollan los procesos de Data Management y con ello poder hacer uso de todos los beneficios que éstos ofrecen, como primera instancia debemos clarificar qué es el Data Management y cómo está integrado. De acuerdo a la DAMA, Data Management Association, este concepto engloba
Balance. This is the challenge facing any organisation wishing to exploit their customer data in the digital age. On one side we have the potential for a massive explosion of customer data. We can collect real-time social media data, machine data, behavioural data and of course our traditional master and
There are no limitations for what you can accomplish. That’s the message Keith Poston from the Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences imparted to 300 middle and high school students, teachers and parents assembled this week at the museum for the fourth STEM Career Showcase for Students
Meetings, emails, budgets, phone calls, more emails, a meeting that could be an email, an email that should be a meeting – sound familiar? This is a typical work week for most of us. It is easy to get caught up in the next thing on the calendar and lose
Today’s IT department isn’t your grandfather’s IT department. It’s not even your father’s IT department. When people talk about Information Technology Departments of the past, it's usually broken into three distinct periods: The Mainframe; PCs; the Internet/post PC. The IT department was seen as the hardware support arm of an
Gender and race discrimination has been banned in most countries for many years, although gender did have specific exclusions for the insurance industry, where the risk for males and females could be shown to substantially different (e.g. females have a higher life expectancy than males). In the European Union (EU)
When social media first came along, there was a lot of hand-wringing about how this would see the end of face-to-face experiences. Everyone would be too immersed in digital technology to bother going out into the ‘real’ world. We would conduct our lives without leaving home, whether working or socializing.
We all find change easier when it starts with something we’re familiar with. That’s why I think sports analytics examples are popular – most of us are sports fans, so we get it more easily. It’s also why automotive examples that illustrate the potential reach of the Internet of Things
We live in a complex world that overflows with information. As human beings, we are very good at navigating this maze, where different types of input hit us from every possible direction. Without really thinking about it, we take in the inputs, evaluate the new information, combine it with our
At a recent TDWI conference, I was strolling the exhibition floor when I noticed an interesting phenomenon. A surprising percentage of the exhibiting vendors fell into one of two product categories. One group was selling cloud-based or hosted data warehousing and/or analytics services. The other group was selling data integration products. Of
With the New Year also comes new beginnings and feelings of a clean slate. With that fresh start, many of us have high hopes of cleaning up our diets and eating more nutritious foods. You’ve probably heard all about the importance of replacing processed carbs with intact, whole grains and
There is no doubt about it – over the past few years there has been a monumental shift in how we think about “enterprise” data management. I believe this shift has been motivated by four factors: Open data. What may have been triggered by demands for governmental transparency and the need
The Rule of Three is a writing principle that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things – Wikipedia. 3 Ps of success, Blind Mice, Little Pigs, Stooges, Musketeers, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, rings, pairs
The boundaries between the company and its marketplace are increasingly blurred. We are now part of a reality in which customers play a much more integrated and active part in the processes of research and development, marketing and customer service. Little about a company and its offerings will ever again
Once you have assessed the types of reporting and analytics projects and activities are to be done by the community of data analysts and consumers and have assessed their business needs and requirements for performance, you can then evaluate – with confidence – how different platforms and tools can be combined to satisfy
Well, folks, I think it’s time to hang up my harness. Since 2008, I’ve navigated the pathways of SAS, visited some great places throughout North America, and taken the best care I could of my friend Ed. But 7 years is a long time (especially in dog-years). So I’m graciously
In the last few days, I have heard the term “data lake” bandied about in various client conversations. As with all buzz-term simplifications, the concept of a “data lake” seems appealing, particularly when it is implied to mean “a framework enabling general data accessibility for enterprise information assets.” And of
As part of two of our client engagements, we have been tasked with providing guidance on an analytics environment platform strategy. More concretely, the goal is to assess the systems that currently compose the “data warehouse environment” and determine what the considerations are for determining the optimal platforms to support
In my last blog I detailed the four primary steps within the analytical lifecycle. The first and most time consuming step is data preparation. Many consider the term “Big Data” overhyped, and certainly overused. But there is no doubt that the explosion of new data is turning the insurance business
Data. It's everywhere. It can reside in many places through replication, accessibility needs or infrastructure costs. For reporting, that same data can be structurally changed (denormalized or aggregated) into additional reporting and analytic data repositories. Over time, new sources of enrichment of that data become available through traditional data sources
Last time I suggested that there are some typical use cases for master data, and this week we will examine the desire for accessibility to a presumed “golden” record that represents “the single source of truth” for a specific entity. I put both of those terms in quotes because I
In the first installment of this series on Hadoop, I shared a little of Hadoop's genesis, framing it within four phases of connectivity that we are moving through. I also stated my belief that Hadoop has already arrived in the mainstream, and we are currently moving from phases three of connecting people to phase four
In my last set of posts I started to look at some of the challenges associated with enterprise management of reference data domains, especially as the scope of use for the same conceptual reference domains expands across databases, systems, and functional areas within the organizations. Recognizing the value of capturing
For 38 years, SAS CEO Jim Goodnight has run this company by a simple philosophy: Treat employees like they make a difference and they will. It was with that philosophy in mind 30 years ago that SAS opened the doors to its on-site healthcare center – with just one employee!
A few years ago, I was presenting a morning course on master data management in which I shared some thoughts about some of the barriers to success in transitioning the use of a developed master data management index and repository into production systems. During the coffee break, an attendee mentioned
The second part of my data governance primer series addresses ways to "mind your metadata." I can just hear the collective groans, and perhaps a stifled yawn. Sorry, but metadata collection is one of those necessary evils that may not be fun, but having it available as a resource to
Data governance as an MDM program planning task, part 2.
