Are you drowning in data? Do you feel overwhelmed -- or underwhelmed -- with the myriad of options available to deal with your data problems? (especially in the area of pricing?) It's the era of big data, and many retailers are discovering that hope is found through new technologies like event stream processing or Hadoop. However, as
"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." - Wayne Gretzky I love this quote from Wayne Gretzky. It sums up how most organizations approach data strategy. Data strategy typically starts with a strategic plan laid down by the board. The CEO will
A successful energy savings program is a good thing for utilities, right? The truth is, that success can result in unintended consequences. One of our utility customers shared this example with me recently: "Let’s say we offer a free LED light bulb to every customer, and everyone removes an old bulb that used 75
Parameters in SAS procedures are specified a list of values that you manually type into the procedure syntax. For example, if you want to specify a list of percentile values in PROC UNIVARIATE, you need to type the values into the PCTLPTS= option as follows: proc univariate data=sashelp.cars noprint; var
Seien Sie ehrlich: Wie viele unserer Blogartikel haben Sie letztes Jahr gelesen? Wir alle kennen das - die Zeit ist knapp und man überfliegt nur einzelne Headlines, merkt sich Texte für ein späteres Lesen vor und vergisst es dann doch komplett… Deshalb haben wir einen ganz besonderen Jahresrückblick für Sie
While 2015 was an unpredictable and often difficult year for many UK retailers, their customers have certainly prospered. The Christmas season, in particular, saw increased discounts for the fifth year in a row. This followed a period when changing weather patterns and price deflation had already offset predicted sales, both in-store and
Announcing New Book: Business Forecasting Just in time for the new year, Business Forecasting: Practical Problems and Solutions compiles the field's most important and thought provoking new literature into a single comprehensive reference for the business forecaster. So says the marketing literature. The real story? The book does pretty much
It’s obvious that an enterprise data strategy involves data – but we sometimes disregard the fact that it should also involve metadata. Why? Because it’s key to unlocking the value of data. Metadata shows you what data is available and how people can use it. It also reveals which data
Health care is undergoing exponential change, and this year we’ll continue to see the industry launch bold missions to improve the patient experience. With new types of data and technologies, the vision of making health care more personalized and proactive is becoming closer to reality. In my new book “The
Health care is undergoing exponential change, and this year we’ll continue to see the industry launch bold missions to improve the patient experience. With new types of data and technologies, the vision of making health care more personalized and proactive is becoming closer to reality. In my new book “The
A number of years ago I was driving home to Alabama for the holidays. Typical of the season the driving was not easy. It was getting dark early and the traffic was fairly heavy. I had the radio on to pass the time. A talk show was on and the
Das turbulente Jahr 2015 hat für Sie hoffentlich einen friedlichen Ausgang gefunden und auch ein Sie zufriedenstellendes Abschlussergebnis. Nachdem ich Ihnen für die Weihnachtsfeiertage aus meiner kompositorischen, malerischen SAS-Bastel-Programm-Bibliothek Anregungen zu Entspannung für besinnliche Momente zum Jahreswechsel anbieten konnte, sind nun im Januar 2016 alle Jahreszähler wieder auf Null zurückgesetzt.
Recently I blogged about how to compute a weighted mean and showed that you can use a weighted mean to compute the center of mass for a system of N point masses in the plane. That led me to think about a related problem: computing the center of mass (called
What if a reckless driver adopted a more responsible approach because the car insurance pricing was based on driving habits? What if the senior from next door had the insurance payments based on kilometres driven, resulting in significant savings? This may be reality sooner than you think. The Internet of Things will revolutionise
What if a reckless driver adopted a more responsible approach because the car insurance pricing was based on driving habits? What if the senior from next door had the insurance payments based on kilometres driven, resulting in significant savings? This may be reality sooner than you think. The Internet of Things will revolutionise
.@philsimon on the need to play offense and defense with your organization's data.
When SAS Scotland gave students 48 hours to build a prototype computer system to help increase police effectiveness, nine teams accepted the challenge. The venue was the University of Glasgow's Hackathon, one of the largest student hackathons in the UK, attracting 200 attendees. SAS Scotland has co-sponsored the event for the past three
When I walk into my local chicken shop I always feel that Mary, the owner, has roasted chickens, prepared salads and put on extra rice pudding for my family’s Friday night meal. Mary welcomes me with open arms, greets me and my son by first name and always has an
Wer erinnert sich noch an seine Jugend und die Abende mit der Familie vor dem Fernseher, bei denen alle versucht haben, sich die Gegenstände in der Rudi Carell Show zu merken, die auf dem Band am Kandidaten vorbeizogen? Unter dem Druck der Bühne waren die Kanditen absolut zu bewundern, während
What strategy do you use to pick your lottery numbers? Do you suspect that the future winning numbers might be somehow related to the past winning numbers? If so, this blog's for you! The Powerball lottery jackpot is up to about $1.4 billion - the largest lottery jackpot there has
I began 2016 by compiling a list of popular articles from my blog in 2015. This "People's Choice" list contains many interesting articles, but some of my personal favorites did not make the list. Today I present the "Editor's Choice" list of articles that deserve a second look. I've grouped
When my band first started and was in need of a sound system, we bought a pair of cheap yet indestructible Peavey speakers, some Radio Shack microphones and a power mixer. The result? We sounded awful and often split our ear drums from high-pitched feedback and raw, untrained vocals. It took us years
Versicherungen sind konservativ und das nicht ohne Grund. Schließlich ist es das Geschäft mit der Sicherheit, die dem Deutschen ja angeblich so wichtig ist. Die Unternehmen der Branche müssen besonders hohe Anforderung an Solvabilität erfüllen und sichern sich auch für Katastrophenszenarien untereinander und mit den Rückversicherern in einem Vertragsgeflecht ab.
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
It’s hard to believe that another year is over. 2015 is behind us; 2016 is ahead. As I looked back over this year, I recalled starting last year at the National Retail Federation Big Show. I presented in the SAS booth on “Optimizing Pricing Decisions.” The presentation was simple and used the concept of
Weighted averages are all around us. Teachers use weighted averages to assign a test more weight than a quiz. Schools use weighted averages to compute grade-point averages. Financial companies compute the return on a portfolio as a weighted average of the component assets. Financial charts show (linearly) weighted moving averages
.@philsimon begins a four-part series on the need for a proper data strategy.
Superhelden gibt es viele, wie Batman, Robin, Spiderman, oder der Flash und fast alle haben das gleiche Problem – sie wollen nicht erkannt werden. Heute geht es um Superhelden und ihr Maskierungsproblem
Despite many experts touting 2016 as a significant year for innovation, IT is still chaotic, with many teams stuck in an old world. Organisations are implementing countless digital and data projects in an attempt to improve business models and streamline processes. Sadly, these rarely reflect any kind of coherent company-wide IT
In this two-part series, which posts as the calendar turns to a new year, I revisit the top data management topics of 2015 (Part 1) and then try to predict a few of the data management trends of 2016 (Part 2). Data management in 2016 The Internet of Things (IoT) made significant
