With all of the discussion about big data these days, it is easy to think that every problem is a big data problem. Yes, there is a lot of data out there these days, and of course we all love a nice big data set, but you don’t always need
I just spent much of the past week watching and trying to ride waves on the North Carolina coast. Small waves, mind you, nothing spectacular and certainly nothing that you would consider edgy or life-altering. Nothing that big wave surfers like Laird Hamilton, Garrett McNamara and others of their substance
Recently, I had an opportunity to participate in an analyst briefing around the Internet of Things (IoT). During the review, a chart was shown to summarize the status of IoT projects in the manufacturing sector. I wasn’t surprised by the varying degree of “completeness” of IoT projects across this industry, but
The metaphors we choose to describe our data are important, for they can either open up the potential for understanding and insight, or they can limit our ability to effectively extract all the value our data may hold. Consisting as it does of nothing but electric potentials, or variations in
If you have not yet discovered the new Ask the Expert series on the SAS Training site, you are missing out on a treasure. Visit the site right now and review all of the available topics, from "Newbie" to Analytics to Visualization to good ol' SAS programming. Go on; I'll
According to recent studies on big data readiness, the majority of companies (more than 60 percent in the latest study of Crisp Research) are not prepared for the challenges of digital transformation. In fact, 58 percent of decision makers surveyed say they have no strategy in place. The quest for
Your customers are more demanding than ever before. Improving field quality and your customer's experience of your product is essential to staying competitive. However, truly understanding customer experience can be a daunting task. These recommendations have been refined and proven in dozens of manufacturers as simple ways to rapidly improve field quality performance. 1. Think big; start small.
Das Big Data Lab von SAS - Big Data Strategie 1995 - World Wide Web. Erinnern Sie sich, wie komplex und kompliziert es für ein Unternehmen war, eine eigene Website aufzubauen, Anwendungen zu definieren, diese redaktionell zu betreuen und die nötige Infrastruktur zu betreiben – heute unvorstellbar! Und sogar das Surfen
As we enter the era of “everything connected,” we cannot forget that gathering data is not enough. We need to process that data to gain new knowledge and build our competitive advantage. The Internet of Things is not just a consumer thing – it also makes our businesses more intelligent. Whenever
You are going to be spending proportionately more of your IT budget on security than you have previously spent or ever wanted to spend. Why? Because you and everyone else on this planet is engaged in the still early stages of an escalating information arms race, that, while you didn’t
Es macht sich ein neues Berufsbild breit: Das des Data Scientisten. Auf dem weiten Feld von Big Data Analytics sind sie die Übersetzer zwischen den Fachanwendern und den Statistikern. Wo aber steht das Multitalent innerhalb eines Unternehmens und wie kommuniziert dieses mit seinen Kollegen - Feind oder Freund?
We’ve all been there. You’ve knuckled down, cleaned out the garage, the attic, and that cupboard under the stairs, thrown away a ton of stuff, only to need it again the very next week. Until recently, that’s exactly what many businesses did with their data. The data explosion has radically
I was surprised to find that the size of the U.S. federal government is smaller today, than in the past many decades - let's graph it out, so it's easy to analyze... The way I got started on this little adventure was via Jishai's graph on dadaviz.com. Here's a snapshot
By now, we have all heard about the Internet of Things (IoT), or the Industrial Internet. Across industries, organizations are attempting to instrument and measure all critical business systems and assets in an effort to drive improved production and service delivery. It is estimated that by 2020, companies will spend
Less than a year ago, the country’s attention was on Dallas after the first Ebola patient died. Not only is that where this project begins, but also where it was presented at SAS Global Forum in Dallas. Sharat Dwibhasi and his classmates Dheerj Jami and Shivkanth Lanka from Oklahoma State
I read an interesting article recently that suggested analyst and data scientist job positions may be on the way out. The author argued that analytics are being incorporated more and more heavily into operational systems, making “analytic capabilities” more readily accessible to business users without the involvement of a data scientist. Being a data
For more than 25 years, PharmaSUG has been the premier educational experience for SAS users in the pharmaceutical industry. Whether you're new to using SAS or a seasoned veteran, this year's event in Orlando, May 17-20, has something for you!
The SAS Business Knowledge Series now offers an online version of the "Forecast Value Added Analysis" course, taught via live web in two afternoon sessions, May 7-8. The instructor is my colleague Chip Wells, who expanded our original 1/2 day FVA workshop with new material, examples, and exercises based on his
I press a button, a miracle machine churns through all the calculations in the world and the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything[1] is produced as a single number. Oh hang on, that’s 42. Alright, for our microcosm, let’s stick to the answer to my
This is a follow up to last week’s blog on understanding your customers’ perceptions of quality. As the world’s largest manufacturer of PCs and tablets, Lenovo is always looking for areas to reduce costs while increasing quality and customer satisfaction. Six months ago, Lenovo implemented the Lenovo Early Detection (LED) system
“Begin with the end in mind” - Habit #2 from Stephen Covey’s ‘Highly Effective People’. The Edge Foundation is based on the premise of: “To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them
As utilities expand analytic capabilities into more areas of the business, the reality of the data management challenge becomes very real. Most have accepted the era of "big data." But what about the quality of that big data? Is it reliable? What about the governance? Have the processes changed since
As a data scientist, I have the rare privilege of possessing the job title that Tom Davenport and others have dubbed the sexiest job in the 21st Century. As this popular job title catches on, I’ve even noticed a trend where customers make direct requests for help specifically from “the data
This blog post discusses the use of a black background in a graph. But before we get started, I invite you to have a listen to one of my favorite songs - "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones. Perhaps this song subliminally persuaded people to use black backgrounds in
In February of this year, the Washington Business Journal reported the US Government appointed its first Chief Data Scientist, DJ Patil. With this, I think it’s now safe to say that Data Science is officially sanctioned as new mode in organizations. Those that can apply the necessary finesse along with
Big Data ist wie ein Fass ohne Boden. Fängt man einmal an, sich damit zu beschäftigen, zieht sich ein nicht enden wollender Rattenschwanz hinterher. Im positiven Sinne! Ich möchte das Zusammenspiel mit der Open-Source-Technologie Hadoop beleuchten. Big Data braucht, wie jeder weiß, auch Big Speicherplatz. Das ist die Voraussetzung für
England’s shambolic early exit from the Cricket World Cup has stirred up a hornet’s nest about the team’s supposed over-reliance on data. In the aftermath of their defeat to Bangladesh, coach Peter Moores said: ‘We thought 275 (runs) was chaseable. We’ll have to look at the data.’ It prompted outrage from
Today in manufacturing there has been a lot of investment in automation, supervisory controls, quality, and execution systems. The amount of data produced and now being captured is staggering. The data captured in industry will re-define what is “big” in big data. Yet, for all this investment: Equipment still fails. Scrap
"You show me a successful complex system, and I will show you a system that has evolved through trial and error." ~ Tim Harford TED Talk link: http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford Karl Marx died thinking that the first communist revolution would occur in Great Britain, driven by the long hours and unsafe
Insurance can be a complex business, so filing an insurance claim can be daunting task for many small businesses. When an incident does occur, be it property damage, business interruption, professional indemnity or public liability among the myriad of other potential causes of loss, it is typically a period of
