We sometimes take it for granted, but the concept of the "SAS library" is just about one of the most awesome aspects of The SAS System. You can give your library a name (a library reference, or libref), tell the system how to get to your data (options on a
A reader commented to me that he wants to use the HISTOGRAM statement of the SGPLOT procedure to overlay two histograms on a single plot. He could do it, but unfortunately SAS was choosing a large bin width for one of the variables and a small bin width for the
The SAS office in New York City has one of the best views in the city. Sitting on the 47th floor of a skyscraper on 7th Avenue, the Executive Briefing Room overlooks Central Park and it has a highly distracting view – especially on such a nice sunny day. What
Recently Charlie Huang showed how to use the SAS/IML language to compute an exponentially weighted moving average of some financial data. In the commentary to his analysis, he said: I found that if a matrix or a vector is declared with specified size before the computation step, the program’s efficiency
I had the pleasure to be the host of the Risk and Finance Insight Session on the second day of The Premier Business Leadership Series, where we discussed the subject of enterprise risk management and financial stewardship. With global, political and financial upheaval becoming the norm (and during the conference
SAS Press has published 3 popular titles dedicated to demystifying PROC SQL. Today, I've selected Katherine Prairie's book The Essential PROC SQL Handbook for SAS Users to excerpt. One often cited highlight of Katherine's book is that it contains 300 examples of PROC SQL code. Katherine really knows SAS--she's been
The moment you (the expert) start to think a topic is boring is the moment when the average person is just starting to become aware of that topic. As soon as I'm bored with a topic, I know it's time to write about it at least five more times. It's
In the world of technology, 2011 is unremarkable in some ways. As with every year, there are hot trends – hype, buzzwords and “must-have” technologies. Some might even assign analytics to the trending category this year. 2011 marks the 35th anniversary of the founding of SAS. For the past 35
SAS-based processes are critical to many organizations, but sometimes the trickiest part of your job falls into one or both of these activities: Getting stuff from the outside world "into" SAS. (Once it's in SAS, as many of you know, the world is your oyster.) Getting the output of your
Each Sunday, my local paper has a starburst image on the front page that proclaims "Up to $169 in Coupons!" (The value changes from week to week.) One day I looked at the image and thought, "Does the paper hire someone to count the coupons? Is this claim a good
While on a recent whirlwind vacation, my husband and I were unexpectedly recruited to participate in a test audience for an upcoming NBC summer series. It was one of the highlights of the trip. It wasn’t the $15 we each earned for an hour of our time and opinions, as
Organizations have become good at finding answers to questions. Where they need to improve is in asking the right questions, according to Dries Van Nieuwenhuyse, General Manager Performance Management USG People Interservices NV. “IT people tend to be applied scientists whose job is to answer specific questions but in analytics,
The Premier Business Leadership Series focused largely – and rightly – on the business benefits of analytics. But driving those benefits requires a serious analysis of the business environment and what is going to deliver most value to the organization. Looking at what was done in the past won’t cut
At the Insight Session on Business Performance, Processes and Systems, George Ioannou, Professor of Operations Management at Athens University of Economics and Business said truth resides in data. But finding that data is like trying to find a pirates’ treasure buried on a desert island. It takes more than
Shailendra Ghorpade of MetLife, Daniel Hamilton of Johns Hopkins University and Penelope Naas of Citi are all committed Atlanticists: but they all see some issues ahead, especially for Europe, and according to Daniel the window of opportunity for putting things right is a small one. In the AmCham EU panel
The year of leadership Recently we taped a short video titled Developing Marketing Leadership - 3 Tips From a Pro. In that blog post I mentioned I have made 2011 the year of leadership. I’m taking every opportunity to learn, mentor and become a better leader—by any means possible. My
In his new book, Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100, world renowned theoretical physicist and futurologist Michio Kaku shared his view, and those of 300 other global top scientists, about what is in store for the rest of
Jim Davis, CMO at SAS reckons he has seen more change in business and economics in the past two or three years than in the previous 20. “To succeed in business you have to innovate, you have to do brand new things. Only problem is, that brings risks,” Jim said
The 2011 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) will be from July 31-August 3 in Miami Beach. Look for acquisitions editor and SAS Press conference mega-maven Shelley Sessoms at the SAS Publishing booth (#504). Shelley can talk with you about: New and forthcoming statistics-related books from SAS Press, including Statistical Analysis for
To re-use an old phrase: “May you live in interesting times.” And we certainly do. Today, Fareed Zakaria addressed these interesting times in his keynote address at The Premier Business Leadership Series, titled "A Roadmap Out of the Economic Crisis." Asked, “Which one of the following economic regions do you
A panel of risk experts gave their reaction to the publication of the fifth global risk management survey report undertaken by SAS and the Economist Intelligence Unit. The report suggests that while lessons have been learned, some institutions may be sliding into complacency. At any rate, risk appetites are growing
As a new contributor to SAS' Customer Analytics blog, I want to take the opportunity to virtually introduce myself. My name is Jonathan Moran, and I’m relatively new to the world of Product Marketing at SAS. However, what I’m not new to is assisting customers in answering important questions like:
Last year Jim Goodnight shared the stage with Bill Green (the then CEO of Accenture) and talked about what it takes to build an analytical organization. This year Dr. Goodnight was with Pierre Nanterme, the current CEO of Accenture and they talked about what it means to lead an analytical
A colleague asked, "How can I enumerate the levels of a categorical classification variable in SAS/IML software?" The variable was a character variable with n observations, but he wanted the following: A "look-up table" that contains the k (unique) levels of the variable. A vector with n elements that contains
Sometime very recently, probably while you weren't looking, I changed jobs at SAS (yes, again). This time it's a bigger change for me, because I'm no longer part of the SAS R&D organization, where I've worked for nearly 14 years. Instead, I'm part of the team known internally as Professional
One of the astonishing benefits of my job is getting to travel to beautiful places around the world to meet with customers and prospective customers at The Premier Business Leadership Series conferences. This year is no exception, the historical city of Antwerp as our backdrop, where hundreds have gathered to
This is the year of the Marketer. We are emerging as leaders in business due to our unique blend of abilities to gain insights from market and customer data and our keen interest in people. We are active in Social Media and Karl Gustafson reminds us in Elevating The Role
My primary purpose in writing The DO Loop blog is to share what I know about statistical programming in general and about SAS programming in particular. But I also write the blog for various personal reasons, including the enjoyment of writing. The other day I encountered a concept on Ajay
Do You Wow Your Customers or Give Them Woe? That was the question addressed during a SAS sponsored presentation at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in San Francisco. In this video, Retha Keyser, Business Development Manager for the SAS Customer Intelligence Global Practice, talks about using customer analytics to solve
No, BONEZONE is not the website of wayward legislators. It is, however, a trade journal of the orthopaedic devices industry, and the Summer 2011 issue features a nice mention of Forecast Value Added (FVA) analysis in an article by Tom Wallace. In "Forecasting: It's Getting Better," Tom refers to FVA
