Is effective data governance possible in an era of big data?
.@philsimon on the new challenges of data governance.
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Finding roots: Automating the search for an initial guess
A SAS programmer asked an interesting question on a SAS Support Community. The programmer had a nonlinear function with 12 parameters. He also had file that contained 4,000 lines, where each line contained values for the 12 parameters. In other words, the file specified 4,000 different functions. The programmer wanted
How to handle time (mm:ss.ss) values in SAS
One of my earlier blogs on handling percent (%) values in SAS was very popular (it's been viewed over 34,000 times!), so I thought I'd write a similar blog on handling time (mm:ss.ss) values in SAS ... This past weekend I was in a dragonboat race (that's me in the
The man behind VAM: Bill Sanders honored for a lifetime of education service
Love them or hate them, value-added models (VAMs) have changed the way we look at education today. VAMs have reshaped our thinking about the effectiveness of programs, schools, educators and colleges that prepare them. While VAMs have been used in the social sciences for decades, we can credit a few
Father’s Day data visualization reveals…do not feed your brother cat food!
As a proud father of three young children, Father’s Day is very special to me. I pulled together some data about the holiday for a fun blog post, but with three kids it’s difficult to find time to write. Evenings end with me and my wife collapsed on the couch
ESP can determine if big data is eventful
Jim Harris says event stream processing determines if big data is eventful and relevant enough to process and store.
SAS Enterprise Guide: Suppress Output Data tab when programming
Have you ever waited a bit for SAS Enterprise Guide to display the Output Data tab when submitting a SAS program that generates multiple output tables? Or, perhaps your program only generates one big output table but it takes a little while for it to surface on the Output Data
Everything you wanted to know about writing SAS/IML modules
One of the fundamental principles of computer programming is to break a task into smaller subtasks and to modularize the program by encapsulating each subtask into its own function. I have written many blog posts over the years about how to define and use functions in the SAS/IML language. I
Announcing SAS/IIF research grants for 2015/16
SAS/IIF Grant to Promote Research on Forecasting For the thirteenth year, the International Institute of Forecasters, in collaboration with SAS, is proud to announce financial support for research on how to improve forecasting methods and business forecasting practice. The award for the 2015-2016 year will be (2) $5,000 grants. The
The Internet of Things - it's not just about the connectivity
Recently, I had an opportunity to participate in an analyst briefing around the Internet of Things (IoT). During the review, a chart was shown to summarize the status of IoT projects in the manufacturing sector. I wasn’t surprised by the varying degree of “completeness” of IoT projects across this industry, but
Is Data an Asset? The importance of the metaphors we use for data
The metaphors we choose to describe our data are important, for they can either open up the potential for understanding and insight, or they can limit our ability to effectively extract all the value our data may hold. Consisting as it does of nothing but electric potentials, or variations in
Customer experience conundrum
Who is your best customer? The answer to this question can vary dramatically depending on your industry. A retailer’s best customer is someone who comes back to their store over and over again. A gym owner’s best customer could be considered consumer who pays their monthly on time but never
UK Hadoopists: fashionably late to the big data party
People are such an important aspect of data analytics. I was reminded of this at the recent Strata+Hadoop World event, where I saw first hand that the UK is indeed facing the same skills gaps as elsewhere in the world. Perhaps that didn’t surprise me, but I also noticed the
Do city buses in the US make a profit?
What cities have the most and least profitable public transportation services in the US? Perhaps you can find out in this graphical visualization of the data! The US data I'm analyzing here covers things like buses, vans, and rail ... but it might be even more interesting to analyze data from
Event stream processing – Tips 2 and 3: Understand the life cycle of the data, collection and consumption
Determining the life cycle of event stream data requires us to first understand our business and how fast it changes. If event data is analyzed, it makes sense that the results of that analysis would feed another process. For example, a customer relationship management (CRM) system or campaign management system like
Redefining the scope of marketing to operationalise customer centricity
My previous blog posts here for marketing have centred on data-driven marketing themes and how marketers can exploit data and analytics to create a more customer-centric, fact-based culture. And by extension, how this, combined with quality execution is likely to lead to better customer experiences and improved customer equity. This
Execute SAS/IML statements that are in a file at run time
A feature of SAS/IML 13.2 (shipped with SAS 9.4m2, Aug 2014) is the ability to execute SAS/IML statements that are in a file. The feature is implemented by the new EXECUTEFILE subroutine. This feature is similar to the CALL EXECUTE statement. The difference is that the EXECUTEFILE subroutine reads, parses,
Child welfare experts urge data sharing and the use of analytics to protect children, families
I remember when I first started in public child welfare 21 years ago and the word "outcomes" was introduced. At that time, we believed that if it felt good and children and families seemed happy that we were doing a good job - those were our outcomes. We were wrong.
Education leaders need data visualization too
Did you know that the education industry is heavily embracing data visualization to run their business? Just like any other industry, leaders in education need to understand their customers (i.e. students). They need to understand how the students are doing, how they're progressing and if intervention is needed to ensure
Three final talent tips: how to hire data scientists (part 4)
How do we hire data scientists at SAS, since we are not unique in our search for a rare talent type that continues to be in high demand? This post is the last in a series on finding data scientists, based on best practices at SAS and illustrated with some
Self-service BI and approachable analytics for all
Still think business intelligence (BI) and analytics are only for big companies? The truth is, small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from BI and analytics in a big way. Digital disruption Thanks to innovative new developments SME’s (and small teams who haven't yet gotten IT’s attention) can now
Can ESP bridge the data quality gap?
As consumers, the quality of our day is all too often governed by the outcome of computed events. My recent online shopping experience was a great example of how computed events can transpire to make (or break) a relaxing event. We had ordered grocery delivery with a new service provider. Our existing provider
Mapping the 50 US hospitals with the highest price markups
A recent study by Bai & Anderson has found that some hospitals charge 10x (ie, 1000%) higher than the standard rates set by Medicare. Many news agencies have posted the list of the 50 US hospitals that have the highest markup. But I am more visually oriented, so of course I used SAS
Ask the Expert: Creating custom tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide
If you have not yet discovered the new Ask the Expert series on the SAS Training site, you are missing out on a treasure. Visit the site right now and review all of the available topics, from "Newbie" to Analytics to Visualization to good ol' SAS programming. Go on; I'll
The spiral of splatter
"Daddy, help! Help me! Come quick!" I heard my daughter's screams from the upstairs bathroom and bounded up the stairs two at a time. Was she hurt? Bleeding? Was the toilet overflowing? When I arrived in the doorway, she pointed at the wall and at the floor. The wall was
Was bin ich?
In einem vor langer Zeit angeblich äußerst beliebten TV-Format fragten Menschen mit außergewöhnlichen Berufen ein Rate-Team „ Was bin ich ?“. Und um den Ahnungslosen zumindest einen Clue zu geben, vollführten die Kandidaten eine für den unbedarften Beobachter meist nichtssagende, für ihre Tätigkeit aber typische Handbewegung. Die typischen Handbewegungen würden
The pros and cons of innovation labs
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
A case for real-world evidence
For health and life sciences organizations, discussions about big data include gaining value from that data in the form of real-world evidence. Consider for a moment the amount of healthcare data that exists today thanks to the adoption of electronic health records. Then think about the future with data from
Computing polar angles from coordinate data
Equations that involve trigonometric functions can have infinitely many solutions. For example, the solution to the equation tan(θ)=1 is θ = π/4 + kπ, where k is any integer. In order to obtain a unique solution to the equation, we define the "arc" functions: inverse trigonometric functions that return a
Tracking West Nile virus mosquitos in the US
Have you ever been bitten by a mosquito? What are the odds it carried the West Nile virus? ... Perhaps a lot higher than you thought! Here's a picture of a mosquito that kept 'bugging' me around my computer desk at home - good riddance, I say!