Alison Bolen is an editor at SAS, where she writes and edits content about analytics and emerging topics. Since starting at SAS in 1999, Alison has edited print publications, Web sites, e-newsletters, customer success stories and blogs. She has a bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism from Ohio University and a master’s degree in technical writing from North Carolina State University.
If I were to show you a picture of a house, you would know it’s a house without even stopping to think about it. Because you have seen hundreds of different types of houses, your brain has come to recognize the features – a roof, a door, windows, a front
Math lovers, do you know what day it is? It's Pi Day, which we celebrate every year on March 14 because the date 3-14 matches the first three digits of pi, 3.14. This year, I'm celebrating with poetry, combining my love of math with my love of language. Word Spy explains that a pi-ku is
Companies in nearly every industry – from retailers and manufacturers to commercial airlines and health care providers – are all waking up to the opportunities in the Internet of Things. If you're still trying to understand how analyzing IoT data could benefit your business, read a few of the articles
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
Imagine you're an investigator sorting through 6,000 mug shots taken at different jails around the state. You are tasked with finding all the mug shots of a high-profile con artist who has been arrested in multiple cities using a number of different aliases over the last five years. How can
“Our job at the lab is to find technology that’s new, cutting edge and cool – and to give it to someone else to be brilliant with.” – Matthew Horn, Manager, SAS Emerging Technologies UI Lab If you’ve heard of Google Glasses or Occulus Rift, you’ve heard of augmented reality.
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.
How long have you been reading SAS blogs? And do you have thoughts on how we can improve them? In 2007, we launched the SAS blog program with just one blog and a handful of bloggers. Today, we have more than 30 blogs and hundreds of active bloggers. As we
How is it that some companies can come up with a big idea and implement that idea successfully in the market, while others never get past the idea phase? "In the case of innovation," says Jill Dyché, VP of SAS Best Practices, "big ideas aren't enough." It's also not enough
What is true customer loyalty? And how can you achieve it without compromising data privacy? According to Peter Hedberg, a senior customer relationship manager with SAS, true customer loyalty programs put the customer at the center of the relationship and use data in ways that are designed to please - not panic
If you read SAS blogs but never click through to the comment sections, you're missing some great information. Need proof? Check out some of these comments from the last few weeks. And then leave one of your own. Kelly McGuire has been studying the effects of negative hotel reviews online.
The Google Flu Trends application has received negative press since 2013 over its inability to accurately detect flu outbreaks. The latest critique, “The Parable of Google Flu: Traps in Big Data Analysis,” from Science magazine compares Google Flu Trends data to CDC data and dissects where the Google analysis went
Maybe you already have big data plans, a data governance counsel and an advanced analytics platform. Do you still need a center of excellence for analytics or BI? Watch this video, or read the list below to find out if you could benefit from creating a centralized team to manage
How does Hadoop fit into your IT architecture? Does it replace your data warehouse, or complement your EDW? How can you access data in Hadoop? And what is the best way to take advantage of the parallel processing capabilities of Hadoop for advanced analytics? These and other questions are answered
Sarah Gates, VP of Research at the Institue for Advanced Analytics, says, yes, there is an emerging need for a Chief Analytics Officer in many organiztions. If you're really serious about driving your business strategy with analytics, watch her explain the importance of this new role - and which industries are
Last week, we introduced you to Jason Dorsey, the Gen Y Guy. This week, we've asked him to share some advice about managing and marketing to Generation Y. And we also discuss this generation's relationship to data. Check out his answers to our questions below. (And remember, Gen Y and Millennials
If you're looking for an honest discussion around big data and IT from one technologist to another, look no further than the recent Forbes article, "SAS CTO On IT And Big Data Analytics."* In it, Keith Collins discusses Hadoop, shadow IT and more. Three excerpted points you won't want to
What does big data know that you don't? It could be a new source of revenue, a budding consumer trend or ... something sinister! Find out what big data knows in this funny but telling video spot: Look familiar? Do you know that guy? Share this funny big data video
Popular SAS blogger Rick Wicklin was recently interviewed by the Brazilian statistics site, estatisti.co about his new book, his background in mathematics, his advice for programmers and his dedication to blogging. Wicklin's answers are conveniently translated into English on the site, so you can read these - and other gems by checking out the full interview.
A few weeks ago, we asked, "What would big data say if it could talk?" Today, we might ask, "What if big data had a mail cart?!" It's a fun metaphor that shows how overwhelming big data can be without a strategy for managing it. Watch the short video below
When users attend SAS Global Forum, they often look forward to hearing from the big names of SAS. To name a few: CEO Jim Goodnight, VP and CMO Jim Davis, and Co-Founder John Sall. Inside SAS Global Forum caught up with these busy executives on the demo floor to talk about SAS
Paul Kent, SAS VP of Big Data talks to us at SAS Global Forum about working with Hadoop and the significant impact it has on SAS customers. Watch the video to learn how one Japanese real estate company used this technology to gather data from elevator stops in high-rise buildings. The
Imagine big data personified. He would be smart and loud and right on top of you ... but ultimately ignored. That's exactly the scene you'll see in this new and amusing video spot. Look familiar? Do you know that guy? Share this funny big data video with your colleagues and
Kimberly Holmes doesn't want to put any limits on what analytics can accomplish at XL Group plc. As the Head of Strategic Analytics, Holmes recently selected SAS Visual Analytics to help the global insurance and reinsurance operations at XL Group meet that lofty goal. We spoke with her at a recent
"What do you do when you first get a data set that's a billion rows long?" asks SAS CEO Jim Goodnight. "You want to play around with it." At dozens of SAS events over the last year, audience attendees have watched Goodnight do just that, quickly grabbing 1.15 billion records, selecting
The one blog post that stuck out for me in this year’s annual onslaught of New Year’s predictions posts was published by Forrester Research, Inc. Big Data Predictions For 2013* by Forrester’s Mike Gualtieri offers solid and realistic advice amidst the hype surrounding big data. Gualtieri’ main predictions are: Firms will realize
“We may not see it but math is everywhere around us,” says Paul T. Savarese, Technical Support Statistician at SAS. You don’t have to be a statistician to enjoy this interview, in which Savarese discusses target shooting, Jay Leno and Guinness beer – and ties it all back to the fascinating subject
When SAS CEO Jim Goodnight talks about the development of SAS High-Performance Analytics, he always starts with the customer. After all, it was banking customer UOB in Singapore that first approached Goodnight three years ago about reducing the time it took to calculate risk factors on the bank's full portfolio.
What's the difference between data mining, forecasting and optimization? When should you use each technique, and how do they interact? Jeremy TerBush, Vice President of Global Analytics, Wyndham Exchange and Rentals explains that he uses all techniques together in an overall predictive process. "Data mining is first step in the system,"
Bill Hakes, CEO and Co-founder of Link Analytics, is on a mission to get people excited about big data and big data analytics. Speaking to a room full of statisticians, analysts and mathematicians at the Analytics 2012 conference in Vegas, he says, “Our mission should be to get the marketers,
