♦We learned this week that SAS is ranked #4 on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2015. This makes six straight years ranking in the top four (including twice at #1).
♦The March/April 2015 issue of Analytics Magazine includes a SAS company profile by my colleague Kathy Lange. As a publication of INFORMS (the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences), the profile focuses on SAS offerings in advanced analytics and operations research (including optimization and discrete event simulation).
♦SAS exhibited at last month's Institute of Business Forecasting Supply Chain Forecasting Conference.
♦In April, my colleague Charlie Chase will be co-presenting (with Chad Schumacher of Kellogg's) at IBF's first Predictive Business Analytics Forecasting & Planning Conference (Atlanta, April 22-24). Their topic is "Using Multi-Tiered Causal Analysis to Synchonize Demand and Supply." Charlie has written extensively about MTCA in his book Demand-Driven Forecasting, and you can download the SAS whitepaper "Using MTCA to Improve Demand Forecasts and Optimize Marketing Strategy."
♦SAS Research & Development has been busy as usual, and in 2014 was awarded five forecasting-related patents:
- Computer-implemented systems and methods for flexible definition of time intervals
Inventors: Tammy Jackson, Michael Leonard, Keith Crowe
- Attribute based hierarchy management for estimation and forecasting
Inventors: Burak Meric, Alex Chien, Thomas Burkhardt
- Systems and methods for propagating changes in a demand planning hierarchy
Inventor: Vic Richard
- System and methods for retail forecasting utilizing forecast model accuracy criteria, holdout samples and marketing mix data
Inventors: Alex Chien and Yongqiao Xiao
- Computer-implemented systems and methods for forecasting and estimation using grid regression
Inventor: Vijay S. Desai
