2015 was a busy year for the hotel industry. ADR, Occupancy and RevPAR achieved record highs. We saw extensive merger and acquisition activity, culminating at the end of the year with the acquisition of Starwood by Marriot and Fairmont by Accor (and don’t forget Expedia’s Orbitz acquisition, of course). Favorable
Whether your New Year’s resolution is to get SAS certified or to become a more advanced SAS programmer, we’ve got you covered with these upcoming SAS Press books, many of which will be making their bookshelf debut at SAS® Global Forum 2016 in fabulous Las Vegas! The SAS® Programmer’s PROC
I wrote 114 posts for The DO Loop blog in 2015. Which were the most popular with readers? In general, highly technical articles appeal to only a small group of readers, whereas less technical articles appeal to a larger audience. Consequently, many of my popular articles were related to data
In this two-part series, which posts as the calendar prepares to turn 2015 into 2016, 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 2015 Big data continued to make
In my recent posts, I've been exploring the issues of integrating data that originates from beyond the organization. But this post looks at a different facet of extra-enterprise data management: data availability. In many organizations, there's a growing trend of making internal analytical data accessible to external consumers. I can
How many times have you gone onto a website, put a few things in a shopping cart, and then exited the Internet? I do it all the time. Sometimes when I log on to that site during my next visit, those same items are still in my cart – ready for purchase. I find
As an economist, I started at SAS with a disadvantage when it comes to predictive modeling. After all, like most economists, I was taught how to estimate marginal effects of various programs, or treatment effects, with non-experimental data. We use a variety of identification assumptions and quasi-experiments to make causal
Heilig Abend ist rum! Hier habe ich für alle, die Weihnachten verschlafen haben sollten, einen weltberühmten Weihnachtssong in SAS programmiert. Denn es ist nie zu spät für Weihnachten! Stimmen Sie sich doch noch ein mit diesem Liedchen.
Beim adventlichen Weihnachtsstern Basteln am vierten Advent hob ich schon warnend den Finger und hielt Sie gemäß des Mottos „Save a Tree“ dazu an, beim Ausdruck der Schnittmuster mit dem Papier ressourcenschonend umzugehen. Vor dem Hintergrund der in Paris erfolgreich verhandelten Begrenzungen des zukünftigen CO2-Ausstoßes, muss man sich ja auch noch
Jeff Stander passes along some of the lessons he's learned about third-party metadata collection.
I was reading through Deloitte University Press' 2015 Holiday Spending survey - the results were interesting, but their graph made you jump through mental hoops to understand the data. So of course I used SAS to create a simpler version of the graph, so you'll have more time for holiday shopping!
Der letzte Tag vor Heiligabend! Die Farbe an ein paar wenigen Geschenken trocknet noch, die letzten Geschenke werden verpackt und die letzten Schleifen gebunden. Ein letztes Mal setzt sich das Christkind mit seinen Auslieferungs-Engeln zusammen. Wird das Wetter mitspielen? Unsere bisherigen Themen: Business Analytics allgemein (1), Vergangenes analysieren – Künftiges
In today’s world of instant gratification, consumers want – and expect – immediate answers to their questions. Quite often, that help comes in the form of a live chat session with a customer service agent. The logs from these chats provide a unique analysis opportunity. Like a call center transcript,
My view of the world is shaped by where I stand, but from this spot the future of analytics for 2016 looks pretty exciting! Analytics has never been more needed or interesting. Machine learning established in the enterprise Machine learning dates back to at least 1950 but until recently has
In two previous posts (Part 1 and Part 2), I explored some of the challenges of managing data beyond enterprise boundaries. These posts focused on issues around managing and governing extra-enterprise data. Let’s focus a bit on one specific challenge now – satisfying the need for business users to rapidly ingest new data sources. Sophisticated business
Santa Claus and his elves are gearing up for another holiday season, busy filling orders and wrapping gifts for all of the good little boys and girls. Since snowglobes are popular gifts this year, Santa Claus has dedicated an entire department to build and wrap the 32,768 snowglobe orders that
PharmaVOICE recently published an article: Analytics Driven Marketing for the pharmaceutical industry and I was fortunate enough to be interviewed. The article discusses the increased use of advanced analytics to make better marketing decisions, the progress that has been made and the challenges that still need to be overcome. Within
PharmaVOICE recently published an article: Analytics Driven Marketing for the pharmaceutical industry and I was fortunate enough to be interviewed. The article discusses the increased use of advanced analytics to make better marketing decisions, the progress that has been made and the challenges that still need to be overcome. Within
Heute müssen sich die Engel die Routenplanung vornehmen. Schließlich hat das Christkind nur wenige Stunden Zeit. Nimmt es auf dem Weg von Familie Minstrel zu Familie Spillner lieber die Mozart-oder doch lieber die Beethovenstraße? Fährt es überhaupt direkt nach Familie Mustermann zu Familie Spillner oder ist es vielleicht sinnvoll, zwischendrin
The English language, a mishmash of words from many tongues and with rules that aren’t always consistent, sometimes causes people to stumble when writing quotes. There are numerous humorous websites with examples of incorrectly-used quotes on signs saying things like “Sandwiches Prepared ‘Fresh’,” or “Help ‘Wanted’ – Please ‘inquire’ within”.
Earlier this month I attended my first Forbes Healthcare Summit, where the stated goal for this year was to “figure out how to create the kind of care we know we deserve.” The event offered a unique gathering of pharmaceutical, health care and biotechnology chief executives engaged in frank discussions
Earlier this month I attended my first Forbes Healthcare Summit, where the stated goal for this year was to “figure out how to create the kind of care we know we deserve.” The event offered a unique gathering of pharmaceutical, health care and biotechnology chief executives engaged in frank discussions
Hidely-hodely, everyone! As you might imagine, the size and variety of the gift inventory at the North Pole puts Wal-Mart to shame. And while we’ve been at this for hundreds of years, we still make too many of some things and not enough of others. No elf can forget the
Most people have logged on to a social media site, maybe to look up an old friend, acquaintance or family member. Some people play games, or post funny pictures or other information they want to share with everyone. Do you ever ask yourself what happens with this information? What if your business wanted to purchase this information and
Liebe Kollegen und Kunden, ich verfolge diesen Blog schon seit Anfang Dezember, aber nun muss ich mich auch mal zu Worte melden: In den letzten Tagen wurden die Weihnachtswichtel ja regelrecht ausgebeutet, dass es mir die Schamröte ins Gesicht trieb. Schneider-, Schuster-, Maler-, Druckerwichtel mussten täglich ihre Effizienz steigern, immer
Thema Scoring: Heute Nacht hat das Christkind einen Albtraum gehabt. Schweißgebadet ist es aufgewacht und schrie nach seinem Frühstücksengel, dem Hallo-Wach. Das Christkind hat nämlich geträumt, dass Vogeleltern ihre Jungen per Scoring aus dem Nest schmeißen. Sobald die kleinen geschlüpft sind, scannen die Eltern ihre Fähigkeiten. Entsprechen diese nicht ihren
Year-end outlooks from most analysts project the low-price environment in the oil market will continue for most of next year, but some pundits emphasize that the market has bottomed out and suggest recovery, though gradual, may be seen if increasing demand outpaces supply growth and sops up some of the
We have all heard many times about how much the US spends on health care each year. But let’s hear it again . . . because it is staggering: According to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in 2013, the national health expenditure (NHE) grew to $2.9 trillion. That
We have all heard many times about how much the US spends on health care each year. But let’s hear it again . . . because it is staggering: According to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in 2013, the national health expenditure (NHE) grew to $2.9 trillion. That
You’d better watch YouTube, you’d better not cry You’d better not post, I’m telling you why Big data is coming to town He’s making many lists (and selling them too), he’s writing it twice (for redundancy’s sake), He’s gonna find out whose naughty or nice Big data is coming to town
