“Over the last 15 months, we’ve seen the world change in countless ways,” SAS CEO Jim Goodnight said to virtual attendees at SAS Global Forum’s Opening Session. “We’re relying on math and science to make important decisions. We look at data to determine when it’s safe to travel or return
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Early in her career, a mentor gave Dawnté Early some career advice that would ultimately change her life. “If you can learn how to analyze and dig into your own data, instead of paying others to do it for you, you’ll be able to do your own research and write
When an extremely rare aye-aye lemur named Agatha was born undersized at the Duke Lemur Center earlier this year, there was immediate cause for concern. There are only 23 captive aye-ayes in the US, and the wild population is at “very high risk of extinction” according to the International Union for
With presidential candidates targeting alternate energy development, the Clean Power Plan officially in place last month, and the rapid evolution of connected devices and the Internet of Things -- life in the energy sector is even more interesting than usual. To catch up on the latest developments, I sat down with one of
Want to know how much the Target and Home Depot cyberattacks cost those companies? According to Forbes, the price tag for data breach expenses ran $146 million for Target and is estimated at $62 million for Home Depot. Even financial institutions, once thought better protected, are reporting massive security breaches,
Today’s self-parking cars are a marvel, but that’s nothing compared to what’s just around the corner: Autonomous vehicles that can taxi you efficiently around a city, onboard navigation systems that warn of bad drivers or traffic jams nearby and offer safer, quicker alternative routes; trucks that haul commerce safely and
Jill Dyché, internationally recognized speaker, author and business consultant, spends her days talking to businesses about big data – how they’re using it, challenges, successes, strategies, plans and more. What she’s hearing again and again from IT leaders is that they have to innovate with big data, move quickly and
Are you wondering what to do next with your analytics program? The latest issue of sascom magazine provides a handy guide. Check it out to get help checking off must-do items like these: Establish an analytics center of excellence. Find out how SunTrust centralized all of the bank’s analytics teams –
Interest in "data" is at an all-time high. The popularity of search terms like "big data," "Hadoop" and the "Internet of Things" spiked dramatically in the past year. The fact is, organizations are more interested in the potential of big data platforms and data management solutions than ever before. That’s
After Mike Olson sold his start up to Oracle, he wanted to do something other than databases. It was 2008 and there was a new open-source software called Hadoop that caught his eye. It was aimed at a new class of data problem, addressing the kind and amount and speed
According to entrepreneur Gilad Elbaz, “The world is one big data problem.” And as a big data researcher and writer, Andrew McAfee is staking his career on it. McAfee spoke to a crowd of business and industry executives at The Premier Business Leadership Series in Orlando, FL, to put the topic
I first spoke with Jill Dyché in March about her "Big data in big companies" research with Tom Davenport. They had interviewed a handful of organizations, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank and UnitedHealthcare. They ended up speaking with executives from more than 20 companies about their big data
If the latest issue of sascom magazine has a theme, it’s preparation. The size and speed of your data is growing exponentially, the world of analytics is changing – and we want our readers to be ahead of the curve. That’s why we’re continuing to explore data visualization. Visualizations are
Big data. It’s still the hottest topic going – and making it pay off continues to be a challenge. According to a recent IDG Research survey, organizations’ biggest big data headaches are: 1) lack of skills needed to run analysis and 2) difficulty in making data available to users for
According to a recent article from Forbes, the three hottest trends in retail for 2013 are: Mobile -- 93 percent of mobile developers anticipate that it is “likely to very likely” that most retail companies will have enabled mobile commerce in 2013, and 2/3 of developers believe that consumers will
At the NRF BIG Show, I had the opportunity to sit down with Chuck Albrecht, President and COO, Northern Tool and Equipment Company to ask him the best advice he’s ever been given (more on that later), his thoughts on the craziest innovations he saw at the show, and Northern
A standing room only crowd gathered at the NRF BIG Show on Monday afternoon in New York to hear Winn-Dixie VP Chris Vukich share how this $7 billion regional grocer has achieved a successful pricing strategy that allows them to: See the impact of each price change. Create what-if scenarios. Model
At the NRF BIG Show in NYC this week, one of the hottest topics is what retailers can do with high-performance analytics. One major retailer has been able to determine optimal prices for as many as 270 million items each week, from 30 to two hours, run advanced markdown optimization
What brings more than 20,000 retailers to NYC in mid-January? I can promise you, it’s not the balmy 15 degree temperatures -- it’s the 101st NRF BIG SHOW, where SAS is a platinum sponsor. This is my first year attending this event – and it’s a bit overwhelming, so here’s a
In a production environment, where dozens of SAS programs are run in sequence, often monthly or quarterly, and where logs can span thousands of lines, it’s easy to overlook the small stuff that can cause data hangovers. Recognize any of these? A temporary data set finds its way into subsequent
After enduring 18 months in a punishing economy, grocers have emerged in better shape than most retail segments according to the Fifth Annual Supermarket Benchmark Study from RIS News and IDC Retail Insights. Still, there are no expectations of returning to business as usual, and technology is a key linchpin
“I really wish someone had shown me this function in SAS sooner, because it’s saved me a ton of time and effort,” said Brandi Rhoads as she opened her presentation at the Western Users of SAS Software (WUSS) conference in San Francisco.
With data standards rising in every industry, there’s a high demand for analysts and an unfortunate shortage of analytic talent. Many organizations are turning to student internships as a low-cost way to hire support, train potential new employees and provide real-world experience for students.
Ready for some fun facts? These tidbits were all shared during the Western Users of SAS Software (WUSS) conference held in San Francisco this week: 1. How many million dollars did a simple Excel spreadsheet error cost TransAlta? Answer: $24 million 2. What percentage of mobile phone users older
At the Western Users of SAS Software (WUSS)conference this morning, I witnessed my first Super Demo, taught by SAS’ own Andy Ravenna covering the major improvements to the latest version of SAS® Enterprise Guide®. The coolest new new features: Mouse over tooltip – gives you help right in the program editor
The Western Users of SAS Software (WUSS) have the best acronym ever, and they're putting on an amazing conference in San Francisco this week. The conference kicked off today with conference chairs Kathryn Valdes and Ginger Carey’s announcement that the Pacific Northwest Users Group is merging with WUSS next year, adding
At SAS, our marketing and R&D divisions work together with customers to develop software products. Droves of our developers attend SAS users group conferences to talk to customers, demo new technologies and get user feedback. We have three customer advisory boards who tell us how they’re using SAS products, what
At the SAS analyst event in Steamboat, CO, in March, SAS CEO Jim Goodnight shared some interesting stats with attendees: Even in 2010's tough economy, SAS experienced 5.2 percent worldwide growth in US dollars. On top of that, SAS is still building new facilities, still winning workplace awards, and this
When Chris Brogan started his social media marketing agency New Marketing Labs, he stated that he would only work with Fortune 100 companies. He had no clients at the time, but lo and behold, Fortune 100 companies came calling. Now the agency’s client list includes Sony, Microsoft, PepsiCo, all of
How do you maintain a local feel in a central organization of 810 department stores in 45 states? Speaking at The Premier Business Leadership Series in Las Vegas, Steve Nevill, Executive Vice President of Inventory Management and Support for Macy’s.shared how the retailer (which had $23.5 billion in sales in