Marketers – like most people – like to see their accomplishments in some sort of visual representation. We are a profession who lives in PowerPoint, prezi or some other sort of tool that makes what you are working on look really, really good – sometimes – better than it really
Over the past six months, my free time was devoted to training. This impacted my blog posting frequency but the training helped me successfully complete the inaugural Raleigh Ironman 70.3 in June. When thinking back through how this happened, I noticed many parallels to successfully implementing software for organizations. If
There are many techniques for generating random variates from a specified probability distribution such as the normal, exponential, or gamma distribution. However, one technique stands out because of its generality and simplicity: the inverse CDF sampling technique. If you know the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of a probability distribution, then
How do you like your sandwich? On rye, whole wheat or white bread? What fillings and dressings do you like? You probably think I’ve gone completely crazy and I don’t blame you. What does food have to do with SAS, you say? Loads -- as you’ll find out with this
As a somewhat healthy and active guy, I pay attention to — and sometimes shake my head at — product packaging that boasts “40 percent less fat” or “all natural ingredients.” When you look at the fine print, it tells a more complete story. Yes, there might be a percentage
We’ve all seen those climactic movie scenes, where the hero of the story figures out how to “save the day” with only minutes to spare. Imagine a rogue CIA operative dashing into a situation room with the last-ditch information that averts nuclear war – and, as always, succeeding. Nothing says
Thanks for joining us for the final post in our series detailing out the Integrated Marketing Management visual that describes what it takes for marketing departments to deliver long term profitable growth to their organizations. In our previous posts we detailed the full visual, and then the first two sections
ODS graph styles provide users with an easy way to control things such as the colors and fonts used in a graph, freeing the user from having to specify these properties in their code. A lot of thought was given to picking colors that work well together, and look good. The
In a previous article I discussed how to bin univariate observations by using the BIN function, which was added to the SAS/IML language in SAS/IML 9.3. You can generalize that example and bin bivariate or multivariate data. Over two years ago I wrote a blog post on 2D binning in
You’ve probably caught on by now that I live in the DC-metro area and suffer daily through the misery of congestion. Before I even reach for my keys, I check for the latest information from regional transportation agencies, especially Metro, to devise my plan of attack. Going way beyond the
In the first two posts in this series, Seeing the Light: How SMBs are Using Data and Insights to Get Ahead, I shared the motivations that prompted three SMBs to replace spreadsheets and intuition with a more sophisticated, analytics-driven approach to run their businesses. In the second, I discussed the
Die politische Steuerung hat einen ernsthaften Verlust an Zustimmung in der Bevölkerung zu verzeichnen: Die fortschreitende Abnahme der Wahlbeteiligung ist nur eine, wenngleich wohl die präsenteste, Auswirkung dieser Entwicklung. Zuweilen wird das schwindende Vertrauen von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern in die Politik mit einer grundsätzlichen Abnahme des allgemeinen politischen Interesses in
It is often useful to partition observations for a continuous variable into a small number of intervals, called bins. This familiar process occurs every time that you create a histogram, such as the one on the left. In SAS you can create this histogram by calling the UNIVARIATE procedure. Optionally,
Did you know that more than 30,000 Americans die in traffic accidents every year? Interestingly, the U.S. import of mangoes from Brazil is found to be highly correlated with this fatality rate, as shown in the graph below. But are mango imports a good indicator of the future traffic fatality
This blog post focuses on clarifying what's important in integrated marketing managment, as shown in the second of three sections, titled Orchestration and Interaction. Often when I mention this product category – I receive perplexing looks due to the name we have given to this section in the full IMM visual. Previously we
This week's SAS tip is from Lauren Haworth, Cynthia L. Zender, and Michele Burlew's book Output Delivery System: The Basics and Beyond. This example-driven book includes broad coverage of some of the best features of ODS. To learn more about the book and the authors, visit our Web catalog to read
To say that I'm excited about the SAS 9.4 release is an understatement! For example, did you know that in SAS 9.4, you can write SAS/Graph output directly to a Powerpoint slide?!? This is definitely an item that was on my "wish list," and will no doubt make life a
SAS is truly a global company, with just over half its employees located in more than 50 countries outside the United States. This presents some corporate internal communications challenges, such as not being too “HQ-centric,” keeping abreast of newsworthy happenings in regional and country offices, and involving global employees in
SAS Forecast Server (release 12.3) is now shipping, and includes the new SAS Time Series Studio GUI. Time Series Studio (TSS), was released as "experimental" last August in 12.1, and is now in production. TSS provides an additional interface in Forecast Server, for time series data mining, exploration, and data preparation.
My first post in this series provided an integrated marketing management visual of the full customer intelligence process. Admittedly, marketing is big and complex, so I thought I would help to take a section at a time to highlight what's important. In that colorful disk-shaped schematic, there are three sections that “float” on top of
Are you still using the old RANUNI, RANNOR, RANBIN, and other "RANXXX" functions to generate random numbers in SAS? If so, here are six reasons why you should switch from these older (1970s) algorithms to the newer (late 1990s) Mersenne-Twister algorithm, which is implemented in the RAND function. The newer
I’ve got a book recommendation for you – it came recommended to me and did not disappoint. “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, by Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman is actually a psychologist (Professor emeritus at Princeton Univ), and his Nobel Prize winning work on decision theory will also remind
SAS 9.3 already has smooth (anti-aliased) lines in SAS/GRAPH device=png output, and in SAS 9.4 you will also get smooth lines in your device=gif output (and gif animations)! Woo-hoo!!! Here are a couple of simple examples to demonstrate: The first example is device=gif Proc Gmap output. If you look very closely, you'll notice that
Mercifully, we have reached the final installment of Q&A from the June 20 Foresight-SAS webinar, "Forecast Value Added: A Reality Check on Forecasting Practices." As a reminder, a recording of the webinar is available for on-demand review, and the Foresight article (upon which the webinar was based) is available for free
Having the right perspective matters in marketing. In particular, having the big picture view in mind while focusing on issues at hand or dealing with specific parts of the marketing function allows us to quickly prioritize tasks or even whole projects. I am sure we would all agree that marketing has become a complex
The DELETE procedure is probably the most well-known and most-used SAS procedure that isn't actually documented or officially supported. That is, that was the case before the release of SAS 9.4, when PROC DELETE returns with more features than ever -- including a production-quality status. In his SAS Global Forum
Being an author can be a tough gig. Lots of writing, reviews, edits, cover approvals…the list goes on and on. But often the good times outweigh the tough times. And we’re so lucky that many of our authors have written more than one book for SAS Press. One such author
“How can we begin to make sense of the unstructured data, when we still don’t make the most of our structured data?” said the exasperated senior manager from a large retail firm. One of the great pleasures of my job is the relationship with students that continues after class has
Tried, tested and true -- I’m sure you already practice some, if not all, of these efficient techniques to save resources. I recently shared these 10 techniques with the Wisconsin Illinois SAS users group in Milwaukee. The conference ran smoothly under the incredibly able guidance of Dr. LeRoy Bessler. I’ll
Jede Branche und jeder Fachbereich kann und wird von Analytics profitieren. Doch jeweils ein wenig anders. Wie Sie bislang ungenutzte Erkenntnispotenziale in ihren Datenbergen heben können, erfahren Sie am 11. und 12. September 2013 in Mannheim. Das SAS Forum 2013 ist nicht nur die größte, sondern auch die individuellste Konferenz
