Fear was written large on the faces of my class as I walked in to set up my SAS Enterprise Guide (EG) course. Participants talked in hushed tones and I wondered what this was all about. I was soon to find out during the introductions. Here are some snippets from
As a follow up to my previous post that described analytics in one word, I decided to revisit my choice of the word "strategic" with a video. If the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" is true, you'll like this version even better than the original. Watch the video
Do you “wish upon a star” that you had a better way to sync up meteor showers with your busy schedule? … Here’s a great SAS calendar chart that can help! There’s been a lot of talk about the possible new meteor shower coming up this weekend. The Earth will
So far in our Ask the Statistician blog and video series, we have heard responses from statisticians at the Analytics 2013 conference about: The many ways statistics benefit their organizations. The types of statistical analyses used to solve business issues. Best practices for explaining results. How they put statistical
In a previous post, I stated that you should avoid matrix multiplication that involves a huge diagonal matrix because that operation can be carried out more efficiently. Here's another tip that sometimes improves the efficiency of matrix multiplication: use parentheses to prevent the creation of large matrices. Matrix multiplication is
Do you ever look at a chart or graph and think about what it’s really trying to reveal? All the time, right? Visualizations are useful because they allow us to analyze information much quicker than if we were to look at the raw data by itself. I say this with
Giovanni Monopoli is the Strategic Analysis and Financial Planning Manager within the Finance Department at QVC Italy. Next month, he’ll be presenting at the Analytics 2014 conference in Frankfurt, Germany about how the broadcast channel uses analytics – specifically SAS Forecast Studio. With live broadcasts 17 hours a day, QVC
Recently one of our most popular authors, Michael Raithel, a Senior Systems Analyst for Westat, presented a SAS Talks and was interviewed for an AllAnalytics radio show. Michael is the author of more than 25 SAS technical papers, four SAS Press books, and a popular lecturer at SAS Global Forum
Principle 7: Accuracy - Risk management reports should accurately and precisely convey aggregated risk data and reflect risk in an exact manner. Reports should be reconciled and validated. Successful demonstration of Principle 7 requires senior management to rely upon the information presented in risk reporting. Since forward-looking strategic decisions are
I love working with SAS Technical Support because I get to see real problems that SAS customers face as they use SAS/IML software. The other day I advised a customer how to improve the efficiency of a computation that involved multiplying large matrices. In this article I describe an important
Data federation is a relatively new term used to describe a form of data virtualization. Data virtualization, however, is not new. It has been around since at least the 1960's when virtual memory was introduced to simulate additional memory beyond what was physically available on a machine. While data federation is a
As you might have guessed, this is a blog post about cold temperatures, and ice! Sometimes ice is a great thing. Here's a picture of my freezer, for example (don't judge - I'm a bachelor!) .. And sometimes ice is a beautiful but dangerous thing, as this picture of my
In just three short weeks I’ll be in Frankfurt, Germany for the Analytics 2014 conference. There will be hundreds of people from 32 different countries in attendance. It will be exciting to hear how people all over the world, in many different industries, are using analytics. As host of the
Imagine this scenario: Every device we encounter in our day-to-day routine – from our refrigerators and automobiles to our water and gas meters – has embedded sensors that read real-time information and generate unfathomable amounts of data. Now take this scenario one step further. Imagine what kinds of insights we’d
A recent Charlotte Observer article provided a thoughtful investigation of growth and achievement in North Carolina’s Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools). The article juxtaposed two very different, yet highly effective, schools. The first, Ranson Middle School, is a low-achieving school with 84% poverty that demonstrated the highest academic growth of any similar
Las crisis financieras han ocurrido desde los inicios de la historia mundial y forman parte de la naturaleza de los ciclos económicos. Es casi imposible evitarlas, pero sí se pueden desarrollar mecanismos de control y prevención que permitan al sistema financiero fortalecerse y mitigar sus efectos y propagación. Según Javier
In light of the recent reports that glaciers in Antarctica are melting, what SAS graphs might be useful in analyzing the data?... When floating sea ice melts (such as at the North Pole), it doesn't raise the sea level - but when ice on land melts (such as glaciers at
My previous post made the point that it’s not a matter of whether it is good for you to use samples, but how good the sample you are using is. The comments on that post raised two different, and valid, perspectives about sampling. These viewpoints reflected two different use cases for data,
Last week, as part of an article on how spammers generate comments for blogs, I showed how to generate random messages by using the CATX function in the DATA step. In that example, the strings were scalar quantities, but you can also concatenate vectors of strings in the SAS/IML language.
What if you could rank where you stand versus your industry peers when it comes to how effectively you're making use of your data through analytics? Now you can. Jim Davis, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at SAS, outlined an eight-metric test at today’s Premier Business Leadership Series
The US health care industry is always getting a bad rap. It takes heat for being too expensive or not efficient enough or just too complicated. We know we need it, and that living long and healthy lives requires it. But we also know we love to complain about it
Madison Avenue has a new phrase to describe the things they are trying to sell to us: artisan crafted. These days, there are artisan crafted breads and rolls, artisan crafted beers, artisan crafted coffees, artisan crafted soaps, and a host of other artisan crafted products. Artisan crafted seems to have
Why do people have 12 pairs of shoes and no health insurance? - Perhaps the consumer price index data can help explain it ... Great minds think alike - I recently saw a plot of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data that Layne Ainsworth had created, and it reminded me
Was gibt es zu „Big Data“, das nicht schon „big-time-häufig“ gesagt, geschrieben, irgendwo kopiert und wieder niedergeschrieben wurde? Und damit Big Data erst möglich macht? Eine ganze Menge! Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger eröffnete den zweiten Tag der re:publica auf der großen Bühne mit diesem Thema. Nachfolgend fasse ich den Vortrag zusammen – mit
This SAS tutorial video will show you how to generate plots for two continuous numeric variables with Base SAS. Basic scatter plots, linear or curvilinear regression lines, confidence intervals or ellipses, and multiple plot overlays are demonstrated. To learn more about this topic, check out our SAS Programming 1: Essentials
It was just a couple of years ago that folks were skeptical about the term "data scientist". It seemed like a simple re-branding of an established job role that carried titles such as "business analyst", "data manager", or "reporting specialist". But today, it seems that the definition of the "Data
In my recent post on how to understand character vectors in SAS/IML, I left out an important topic: How can you allocate a character vector of a specified length? In this article, "length" means the maximum number of characters in an element, not the number of elements in a vector.
Según datos de la Asociación Mexicana de Internet A.C. (AMIPCI), la mitad de los usuarios de Internet en México se conectan a la red a través de dispositivos móviles y se espera que para el 2015, las aplicaciones móviles (Apps) superen a las de escritorio no sólo en el país
In my previous post in the Ask the Statistician interview series, we heard from statisticians at the Analytics 2013 conference discuss the how their statistical results are put into action within their organizations. Now let’s learn more about their specific examples of success they have had utilizing these results. Check out
Can the selection of the axis range in a graph influence how you perceive the data? Let's find out with a "Labor Participation Rate" graph ... Medical doctors have traditionally taken the Hippocratic Oath, swearing to practice medicine honestly. I have often thought that people creating graphs should swear a
