Has analytics become just a buzzword, the hype du jour? It’s great that analytics are now cool, but few people have taken then time to understand what analytics really are and how they can help solve their business problems. Last month at the the 30th Annual International Maintenance Conference, I
In conjunction with the International Institute of Forecasters and the Institute for Advanced Analytics at North Carolina State University, the 2016 Foresight Practitioner conference will be held in Raleigh, NC (October 5-6, 2016) with the theme of: Worst Practices in Forecasting: Today's Mistakes to Tomorrow's Breakthroughs This is the first
"Where do you go to get help with SAS?" It's a question I've asked users more times than I can remember. Some will tell me they take a SAS class or call SAS Technical Support, but the most common answer is "colleagues." There's no doubt fellow users are a great resource, but if you're only relying on colleagues at your
Did you know that Tuesday, Nov. 24, was #ThankfulTuesday? This themed day was just two days before Thanksgiving and joined the ranks of newly invented opportunities such as #WorldPastaDay and #NationalMotherInLawDay to collectively post on social media about a single topic. Appropriate to the season of giving thanks, many people
Heute gegen 15 Uhr wird das Christkind einen Ausflug zu einem irdischen Einzelhändler unternehmen – es geht um Assoziationsanalysen und Warenkörbe. So viel vorweg. Doch lesen Sie jetzt erst mal, warum diese Reise ansteht. Und ganz unten im Blog lernen Sie Herrn Mümeschmi kennen! Hier geht's zum 1. & 2.
What is information? The lack of a working definition plagued both science and the emerging telecommunications industry until the arrival of Claude Shannon and his famous 1948 paper, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”, based on his cryptography work during WWII while at Bell Labs. The landmark article is considered the
In my first post, I talked about the hell of using Excel for all your data needs; in my second post, I covered the building blocks and initial first steps that will lead you to a future proof data strategy. Now let’s zoom in on the three domains that underpin
As consumers have moved to digital channels and digital interactions, competition for the hotel consumer has increased dramatically. Now, hotels not only compete with each other, but also with third-party online distributors, and even new disruptors from the sharing economy like AirBnB. However, hotels have one advantage that these other
In my previous post, I discussed some of the challenges and costs organizations face when they’re stuck in Excel hell with no real data strategy. Now that we’ve discussed the problem, let’s dive into the solution. Every organization needs a data strategy with these building blocks: Your top priority is
Here in the US, we've got the Thanksgiving holiday coming up soon. And the keystone of this holiday is a big dinner, with lots of traditional Thanksgiving foods. But where does all this food come from, and which farmers should we thank for which of the food items? I use SAS
With over 1,000,000 words in the English language, why is it that we tend to use the same words over & over? This blog shows a hierarchical approach to help you branch out and choose more descriptive words. But first, to get you into the mood for a blog about
By now, you’ve probably seen a video of a 3D printer discharging layers of plastic to create a model of a building or a plastic figurine. You may have heard stories about 3D printed guns, 3D printed airplane parts and even 3D printed body parts. While 3D printers are becoming more common, they are
Over the last few years I’ve seen and worked on many transformational projects with big data, especially those that tap into big data’s ability to provide new and improved services for the public good. But there’s also a danger that analytics, unchecked, can do social harm by indirectly discriminating against
The INFORMS 2015 Annual Meeting will be held in Philadelphia November 1-4. More than two dozen SAS staff will participate, and SAS will have three adjacent booths representing SAS/OR (and all of Advanced Analytics), JMP, and the SAS Global Academic Program. SAS is well-represented among the presentations at this meeting,
Das größte Taxiunternehmen besitzt kein einziges Taxi, das größte Hotelunternehmen besitzt kein Hotel, die größten Musikplattformen haben keine Künstler unter Vertrag. Wie der Erfolg beweist ist nicht das Besitzen der Schlüssel zum Erfolg, sondern die optimale Nutzung und Verteilung von vorhandenen Ressourcen. AirBnB, Uber und Spotify machen es vor. Aber
Is your LASR implementation running short on memory? Since LASR tables are stored in memory, it can become scarce. So what can we do to minimize LASR table size and still get LASR’s legendary performance? Here are a few strategies on how to shrink LASR tables: Compression: When compression was
When I was a kid, I always found it difficult to pick a Halloween costume. Now that I'm older, perhaps I can use computers & analytics to make my decision (and yours) easier! ... There are several different schools of thought on Halloween costumes - for example, some like to
It's that time of year again - time to choose what Halloween candy to buy for the trick-or-treaters! This is always a tough decision that has me angsting in the candy aisle. And if selecting the perfect candy wasn't enough pressure, my city (Cary, NC) was recently recognized as #1 on
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a revolutionary approach that will radically change our lives, our way of integrating with technology, and the way we do business and marketing. Companies have already defined a strategic plan for collecting and organizing data coming from the IoT. The next step is to
Recently, I interviewed four higher education customers to hear firsthand how each is using analytics in real life (IRL). In this blog series, we will learn how educators are using analytics, why they chose SAS, and the impact it has had on their users and their institutions. In addition, they
Black Dog Syndrome may sound like the clinical term for a Led Zeppelin earworm but, as any animal shelter worker will tell you, it actually describes the challenge black dogs face in getting adopted. This phenomenon is in the spotlight today because Oct. 1 is National Black Dog Day! Black
When I started college 25 years ago, we didn’t use email. I moved into the dorms my freshman year with a Brother Word Processor, convinced I would never have a single computing need beyond the necessity to type, save and print text. It’s incredible to consider how wrong I was.
Savannah plays host to the 23rd annual SouthEast SAS Users Group (SESUG) conference from Sept. 27 to Sept. 29. Over 300 attendees are expected to gather in this historic city. If you’re planning to attend, I’ve selected a few special features that I hope will help both new and returning attendees
In today’s information economy, the ability to engage and develop meaningful digital relationships is fundamental to any business. A growing number of organisations, including small-to-medium sized enterprises, are investing in easy-to-use analytical software and services to extract insights from data about their business. As a result, we're now experiencing the
The epicenter of big data moves to New York City on September 29 at Strata + Hadoop World. It’s a great chance to mix and mingle with people that live and breathe analytics, including a core SAS team of thought leaders, developers and executives. We’d love to be a part
Along with the data scientist hype, analytics and the people who make them work have found themselves in the spotlight. The trend has also put an emphasis on the "science" aspects of analysis, such as a data focus, statistical rigor, controlled experiments and the like. Now, I’m not at all against adding more
With all the hype over big data we often overlook the importance of modeling as its necessary counterpart. There are two independent limiting factors when it comes to decision support: the quality of the data, and the quality of the model. Most of the big data hype assumes that the data
We are all modelers. Whenever you plan, you are building a model. Whenever you imagine, you are building a model. When you create, write, paint or speak, you first build in your head a model of what you want to accomplish, and then fill in the details with words, movements
Dust off that old aphorism about an ounce of prevention. Oil companies applying analytics for predictive maintenance can see a substantial downtick in the unanticipated equipment repairs that quickly eat into an oil well’s profitability. Maintenance is far from a trivial concern in the oilfield. A pumping oil well is
I am a runner – a trail runner to be more precise. There are many trails that I enjoy running near where I live, but what I really anticipate is the opportunity to explore a new trail. Whenever I travel, my trail shoes go with me and I try to
