What is kurtosis? What does negative or positive kurtosis mean, and why should you care? How do you compute kurtosis in SAS software? It is not clear from the definition of kurtosis what (if anything) kurtosis tells us about the shape of a distribution, or why kurtosis is relevant to
Companies like Amazon, Netflix, Zappos and Pandora have changed what consumers expect from a brand – they want brands to “know” what they want before they ask for it. To provide those kinds of personalized products and services, brands have to collect and analyze huge quantities of customer and industry
In a city built on hedging your bets, it is fitting that the Analytics 2014 conference kicked off Monday in Las Vegas with a look at all the unscientific ways people try to predict the future. John Elder, Founder and President of Elder Research, Inc., entertained the audience with examples of how
When it’s claimed that the UK government could be wasting money that’s equivalent to the current spending on state pensions – and considerably more than what’s spent by the Department for Education – you know that action is needed. The Policy Exchange recently issued a report – Smaller, Better, Faster,
Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union, in its recently released 2014 Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment (iOCTA), cited a report by U.S. security firm IID that predicts that the first “online murder” will occur by year end, based on the number of computer security system flaws discovered
Welcome to the blog “Operations Research with SAS: Optimize, Simulate, Understand.” For those of you without an operations research background, a brief explanation: operations research (OR) is the study of the operations of systems, with a focus on making them function more efficiently and more effectively. The overall goal of
All hail the data lake, destroyer of enterprise data warehouses and the solution to all our enterprise data access problems! Ok – well, maybe not. In part four of this series I want to talk about the confusion in the market I am seeing around the data lake phrase, including
A few years ago I wrote an article that shows how to compute the log-determinant of a covariance matrix in SAS. This computation is often required to evaluate a log-likelihood function. My algorithm used the ROOT function in SAS/IML to compute a Cholesky decomposition of the covariance matrix. The Cholesky
As this article on the mythical data scientist describes, many people call this special kind of analytical talent "unicorns," because the breed can be so hard to find. In order to close the analytical talent gap that McKinsey Global Institute and others have predicted, and many of you experience today, SAS launched
There’s a restaurant here in Raleigh called the Angus Barn. It’s one of my favorite places to eat and unwind after work. They’ve got top-notch steak and quality cold beer, but what really sets the place apart is the customer experience they provide. There’s a cigar room in the back
How many times a day do you search (or “Google”) how to do something with a product, the best ways to perform “X,” or for help with a problem? Chances are it’s a lot, and when you do, you likely land on a forum where your peers have posted answers
My previous blog post describes how to implement Conway's Game of Life by using the dynamically linked graphics in SAS/IML Studio. But the Game of Life is not the only kind of cellular automata. This article describes a system of cellular automata that is known as Wolfram's Rule 30. In
I always recommend looking at data in several different ways, to get a more complete picture of what's really going on - such is the case with the member 'ratings' on dating websites. Let's take a look at some data from a different angle... In a recent blog post, I
In 2011, the passage of the federal Justice Reinvestment Act (JRA) brought significant changes to North Carolina’s criminal sentencing practices, particularly in relation to the supervision of offenders released into the community on probation or post-release supervision. A recent New York Times article highlighted how NC has used the implementation
Una de las mayores tendencias en el segmento de las empresas en crecimiento durante el año pasado estuvo enfocada en la estandarización de los procesos de back-office, principalmente impulsados por una búsqueda de reducción de costos y mayor eficiencia en la organización. Sin embargo, hoy más que nunca cubrir la
I recently caught up with Dr. Tom Davenport, analytics thought-leader and author of Big Data @ Work, in Dublin, where we talked about big data, the Internet of Things and Hadoop. I'll be sharing the conversation here with you in two parts. You'll find part one below, and you can check
Do you have too many models to build, too many to manage, too few analytic resources or too much data? A Model Factory may be your answer. The mindset of analytics is changing. This represents the transformation from a “craftsman” dominated culture in which multiple weeks were spent cycling through
A colleague jokingly teases me whenever I write a blog that demonstrates how to write fun and exciting programs by using SAS software. "Why do you get to have all the fun?" he mock-chides. Today I'm ready to face his ribbing, because this article is about Conway's Game of Life
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,
With Amazon Prime's 2-day shipping, I seldom go to physical stores any more. How do they deliver items so quickly? Let's analyze some data to find out... There are very few services/memberships that I truly feel like I'm getting "a good deal" for my money - and Amazon Prime is
Visual analytics es una solución, que puede impactar los resultados de una compañía independientemente del tamaño. Según Sanjeev Aggarwal, socio de la consultora tecnológica SMB Group, esta solución es el futuro del análisis avanzado de datos para las empresas en crecimiento. Las hojas de cálculo y las herramientas de Business Intelligence tradicionales
Hello, 1992 called. They want their DDE Excel automation back. Perhaps the title of this article is too pessimistic. Of course your SAS programs that use DDE (dynamic data exchange) can still work perfectly, as long as you situate your SAS software and its DDE "partner" (usually Microsoft Excel) to
Mit immer größeren Datenmengen, die es bei BI Reports und Analysen zu bewältigen gibt, sieht man sich immer öfter mit Performance-Engpässen konfrontiert. Nicht ohne Grund werden deshalb In-Memory-Lösungen, in denen ganze riesige Dateien in Arbeitsspeicherfarmen immer beliebter, die performanceoptimiert zusammenarbeiten und Techniken wie Load Balancing und Multi-Threading nutzen. Doch auch
This post is a nod to one of my favourite plays, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. As the title ‘Data Scientist’ becomes more common, what can we gain about the importance of titles and labelling from this century old play? For those that haven't read it, the
Working out where Hadoop might fit alongside, or where it might replace components, of existing IT architectures is a question on the minds of every organization that is being drawn towards the promises of Hadoop. That is the main focus of this blog along with discussions of some of the reasons they
The tail of a probability distribution is an important notion in probability and statistics, but did you know that there is not a rigorous definition for the "tail"? The term is primarily used intuitively to mean the part of a distribution that is far from the distribution's peak or center.
SAS Enterprise Guide 7.1 began shipping last week. Of the many new features, some are "biggies" while others are more subtle. My favorite new features are those for SAS programmers, including several items that I've heard customers ask for specifically. I'll describe them briefly here; the SAS Enterprise Guide online
The rise of analytics and big data presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for organisations to put themselves at the cutting edge, to create a competitive advantage by developing a culture of analytical success within their organisation. Yet most seem unable to grasp the opportunity that is within their reach. Eric Hoffer
I’ve written about using text analytics to capture comprehend and act on the voice of the customer on this blog before. Recently, I recorded a short presentation that outlines how text analytics provides insight from all of the customer experience data that you collect, not just review data from social
After attending the SAS Day at Texas A&M University on Oct. 2, I came away with a new perspective on some of the different educational offerings to help fill the analytic talent gap (which according to studies and research continues to grow). In essence, there is a yin and yang of
