At the beginning of each year our Scout Troop puts the newly elected boy leaders through JLT, Junior Leader Training, in order to prepare them for the roles they will assume within the troop. About mid-way through the day-long training session, after we have covered the duties of all the
The Spring 2010 issue of Foresight is now available. Here is Editor Len Tashman’s preview: What’s the connection between hindsight and foresight? That is the question Paul Goodwin asks in his Hot New Research column leading off this issue. The problem is that hindsight bias – the tendency to believe
I first met SAS Global Forum’s 2011 co-chair, Debbie Buck, through my role as a SAS liaison to the South Central SAS Users Group. Over the years, I’ve gotten to know Debbie pretty well, and my admiration of her continues to grow. I’ve even forgiven her for the awful gift
Yesterday (Monday) was an incredibly busy day for me at SAS Global Forum. It began with a successful Technical Session where SAS R&D staffers showed off: the new features coming in SAS/STAT (with the 9.22 /nine-twenty-two/ release) SAS Enterprise Miner with the Rapid Predictive Modeler (hosted in SAS Enterprise Guide
One of the events I look forward to every year is the unveiling of a year’s worth of SAS R&D’s magic. It occurs during the SAS Global Forum Technology Connection. Today’s show was all we could have hoped it would be! We heard from some SAS software, technology and statistics
Although you probably didn’t notice, I stepped away from this blog for the last two months to think about something more important: The current state of business forecasting. I’d come to realize there is a lot of animosity in the world of forecasting. We have advocates of statistics, and advocates
I LOVE to read. Six months ago, it was “bah humbug” for me when it came to eBooks. I want my print books! Then I got the Apple iPhone for Christmas and whoa, now I love reading online. Have you tried it yet? SAS Publishing Operations is working with the
Attending the Predictive Analytics World (PAW) Conference is truly a rewarding experience. Compliments go to Eric Siegel and the conference organizers for assembling such an interesting cast of case studies and speakers. Day 2 kicked off with a key note from Kim Larsen from Charles Schwab & Co. on net
I’m excited to announce that SAS Press will have two more new books available for sale soon! Output Delivery System: The Basics and Beyond by Lauren Haworth, Cynthia Zender, and Michele Burlew, and Combining and Modifying SAS Data Sets: Examples, Second Edition by Michele Burlew will be available November 16th.
Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and Blink, and Tom Davenport, Babson College professor and author of Competing on Analytics, engaged this morning in a debate on a live Webcast onsite at The Premier Business Leadership Series at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. The theme of the debate is analytics vs. instinct:
While working on a SAS OLAP and ESRI project, I was asked about geocoding addresses. Fortunately, Jeff Phillips, one of the SAS presenters at SESUG09 gave a talk about PROC GEOCODE. In SAS 9.2, street addresses can be given x/y coordinates via the geocode procedure using the 5 or 9
Last week at the SAS Retail Executive Seminar held in Cary, NC, I was able to catch up with industry leaders and ask them a few questions about what’s going on in retail -- and their predictions for what’s coming next. Keynote speaker Terry Donofrio, President of Retail Systems &
(Information Below for 9.1.3 Environments) To modify the Web Report component used from SAS Portal, modify the PortalContent.xml located in the Installation Folder (such as c:Program FilesSASWebPortal2.0.1PortalWEB-INFcontent in windows) and then redeploy the Portal. (You can directly modify the same file in the Tomcat/webapps location, however modifying the installation folder
You can utilize IIS on your standard web server to connect to the jBoss SAS Installation. There are three steps that must be followed to the T: 1. On IIS Machine A. Create a file location for the dll and properties files. (This location via be referenced via a virtual
I’m back from a week of vacation in Michigan and bursting with new topics, but will have to get to those next week (still playing catch-up in my day job). I do, however, have the pleasure to announce the publication of a new book by my friend and colleague Charlie
The SAS internal discussion boards are always full of fascinating topics, some of which are even decipherable to a non-Ph.D. in statistics like me. A recent topic involved how to calculate the benefits of good forecasting software, and my colleague Robin Way offered an interesting perspective that he allowed me
Personally, I don’t get Twitter. I have an account (mvgilliland) for anyone interested in not hearing any tweets from me. I follow a few people and have a few followers (including some that aren't porn bots) -- but what is the point? Does anyone really care that I’m out hanging
I’m a self-described bookworm who’s been a little slow on the upstart with cutting-edge technology and the social media that’s intertwined with much of how we go about our daily routines. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t like technology, I love it and I marvel at how
Publishing is a rapidly changing business. As technology continues to revolutionize the way we consume information, one thing seems to remain constant – “content is king.” SAS Publishing recognizes that our customers now carry Kindles, visit online discussion forums for solutions, edit wikis with sample code and ask programming questions
Recent research conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of SAS illustrates both the scope of the proposed reforms and the scale of the challenge ahead in risk management. In March 2009, the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a global survey of 334 senior financial services professionals, of whom 50
Here is the first of what I hope to be many guest postings from my colleagues here at SAS. Today Snurre Jensen, Business Advisor from SAS Denmark, writes about his recent encounter with a blog about dealing with demand changes in SAP APO. From Snurre: In my ongoing quest for
Question: What do you get when you cross your Facebook friends with SAS analytics? Answer: Insight, probably more about yourself than anything else. You can tell a lot about yourself by looking at your friends. And I'll bet that so can Facebook and those who advertise on it. Data from
Both the fiscal crisis and the swine flu pandemic have caused a great deal of worry and panic. Worry is sometimes a good defense, but panic only leads to more panic and that only leads to more trouble. At the same time, both crises have brought to light the importance
Members of the media attending SAS Global Forum met a panel of SAS customers from diverse backgrounds but with a unified message: In uncertain economic times, deploying the power of advanced analytics becomes a necessity rather than a luxury. Panelists included: Aaron Cano, Vice President of Customer Knowledge, 1-800-FLOWERS.com Stephan
I had the opportunity to sit in on two presentations yesterday that ran back-to-back and seemed to provide a complementary message to SAS users in government and public service. It gave me the idea to post a few comments on both. Ben Zenick, Doing More with Less Ben Zenick, the
SAS Global Forum Conference Chair Lori Griffin gave a warm welcome to attendees and kicked off an Opening Session that was abuzz with excitement. Griffin told attendees that even though these are challenging times, a sense of confidence abounds at this conference because the key to success is applying solid
I recently attended the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) “Big Think”. The Big Think is an annual invitation-only event hosted by Tracy Mullen, CEO of NRF, and her staff. NRF is the “voice” of retail and represents an industry with more than 1.6 million U.S. retail companies, more than 25 million
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, many financial experts spoke about what is needed to unleash the lenders, keep the books simple, and bring on more rules to improve the financial markets and avoid another global financial crisis. Is nationalizing global banks the answer, as some experts have
Have you ever glanced through the obituaries and felt stunned to recognize an old friend? That's how it felt when I saw this announcement about Windows 3.11. One of my first assignments when I joined SAS in 1993 was to write Changes and Enhancements to the SAS System Release 6.10:
I've received a lot of reactions to my sascom article Getting a real return on your ERP investment. Many questions have focused on my statements about agility and the differences between agility in operational (ERP) and decisional (Business Analytics) environments. Agility in an operational environment means that your IT department
