When you were growing up, did you ever imagine that the most popular show on TV would be 24-hour coverage of a storm?!? Yes, for better or for worse, the weather has become our new reality TV. And as you watch the weather coverage, you probably see all the weather reporters showing the
Data governance has been the topic of many of the recent posts here on the Data Roundtable. And rightfully so, since data governance plays such an integral role in the success of many enterprise information initiatives – such as data quality, master data management and analytics. These posts can help you prepare for discussing
Machine learning is taking a significant role in many big data initiatives today. Large retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are using machine learning combined with predictive analytics to help them enhance consumer engagement and create more accurate demand forecasts as they expand into new sales channels like the
Are you happy with the ROI on your analytics investments? Recently we’ve seen an upswing in organisations investing in analytical platform capabilities. One can assume the goal of these investments is to turn transactional data into a strategic asset. However, analytics alone will not do it. Unless your organisation is
Real world data collected in a functioning health care setting instead of a controlled clinical environment can provide opportunities for new and deeper insights across life science and health care organizations. However, managing, analyzing and extracting actionable information from the varied available sources can present unique challenges. The sheer size of these
One very useful type of auditing for a SAS administrator is to have summary data about the availability and performance of various resources (platforms, servers, services) from the 30,000-foot view. $1000 loan guaranteed. Using SAS Environment Manager, it's easy to go in and look at the availability of any one resource over
Digitalization - the move towards a more digital world - is a well-established phenomenon. But the digitalization journey is not the same in every sector. Traditional practices, available skills and competitive forces are creating a new set of dynamics in the credit risk sector. Providers are coming under significant pressure
Energy suppliers are fighting for prime position in the domestic energy supply market. Disillusioned customers, increased competition due to a flood of new entrants and tighter regulations are forcing suppliers to reassess their business models. According to UK regulator Ofgem, there were 3.8 million account switches in the first six
It was like any other day in autumn. The brightly covered leaves that had once been attached to the cascading tree branches had finally let go. The summer heat had taken its toll and there they were lying on the ground fading into the Earth’s surface. I remember looking out
Lately, the definitions of data governance and data management look very much alike. In this two-part series, we'll define data governance and data management. And we'll see that there's a big difference in the two.
What is weighted regression? How does it differ from ordinary (unweighted) regression? This article describes how to compute and score weighted regression models. Visualize a weighted regression Technically, an "unweighted" regression should be called an "equally weighted " regression since each ordinary least squares (OLS) regression weights each observation equally.
While men still outnumber women in the analytics field, there are plenty of opportunities available for women. At a recent Chief Data and Analytics forum, I was encouraged to see a well-balanced number of senior executives presenting about the business of analytics. Speakers included 12 women and 14 men, which indicates a
Last week I had the pleasure of presenting my paper "Graphs are Easy with SAS 9.4" at the Boston SAS Users Group meeting. The turn out was large and over 75% of the audience appeared to be using SAS 9.4 back home. This was good as my paper was focused on the cool new
I was with my two grown sons and their spouses this past month for a family wedding. I have to say that they have turned out well. They seem to have great relationships with their spouses and children; they are working productively in their fields of interest; they care about
Like many words, if you just say "Cat 5" different people might think you're talking about different things. Computer geeks might assume you're talking about category 5 network cabling. But around this time of the year, most people in the southeast US will probably assume you're talking about a category
.@philsimon asks, Rather than trying to tackle a new form of governance, wouldn't your organization do better to shore up its existing data-governance practices?
The recent releases of SAS 9.4 have featured major enhancements to the ODS statistical graphics procedures such as PROC SGPLOT. In fact, PROC SGPLOT (and the underlying Graph Template Language (GTL)) are so versatile and powerful that you might forget to consider whether you can create a graph automatically by
With today’s customers able to access rich sources of product and service information – especially pricing data – when they are mobile, retailers are being forced to innovate in the way they capture consumers’ attention. Unfortunately, attention spans are rapidly decreasing to just the few seconds that a user spends
Did you know that socks are one of the most needed but least donated items at homeless shelters? Or that 4,000 people will experience homelessness each year in Wake County alone? To bring awareness to this need and to encourage YOU to make a difference by donating socks to your local
Jared Cohen, President of Jigsaw, formerly Google Ideas, and Chief Advisor to Alphabet Executive Chairman (former Google CEO) Eric Schmidt, presented a very interesting keynote at Analytics Experience this month. In it he mentioned the idea of a ‘digital self’. He explained most people have not one but numerous digital
At SAS, we use terms like “machine learning,” “predictive modeling” and, of course, “analytics” quite a bit in our day-to-day business. Not surprising, given that we're the largest analytical software vendor out there. But have you noticed that these terms are popping up more frequently in news articles and blogs?
Start with the end in mind -- wise words that apply to everything, and in the world of big data it means we have to change the way we look at managing the data we have. There was a time when we managed data quality, and the main goal was
In a number of my previous blogs I have discussed auditing within a SAS environment and how to identity who has accessed data or changed reports. For many companies keeping an audit trail is very important. If you’re an administrator in your environment and auditing is important at your organization,
We've witnessed a significant rise in data governance adoption in recent years. Careers, technology, education, frameworks, practitioners – there's growth in all aspects of the discipline. Regulatory compliance across many sectors is a typical driver for data governance. But I also believe one of the main reasons is the realisation by
Similar to hunting for Mewtwo (Pokémon), identifying and recruiting talented data scientists is just as elusive. CIMB decided that the best way would be to bring budding data scientist together for a challenge. This will provide candidates the opportunity to win cash prizes along with potential employment with CIMB’s Decision
SAS Programming Professionals, SAS & bugs & rock & roll? But, of course! SAS Because of its amazing versatility, SAS is indisputably the greatest software package currently in use anywhere within the Milky Way Galaxy. Can SAS input every type of flat file imaginable? Yes! Can SAS read and write
With the first debate between the two candidates behind us and the culmination of the US presidential election drawing near, who wouldn’t love to predict the winner? I don't have a crystal ball, but I do have the power of unstructured text analytics at my fingertips. With the help of
As a nutritionist, I have consulted with many clients over the years about how to eat to improve their health. Since every individual has different nutritional needs based on their genetics, lab results and current lifestyle, each nutrition consult is different than the one before. In addition, nutrition messages have
Last week I showed how to find the nearest neighbors for a set of d-dimensional points. A SAS user wrote to ask whether something similar could be done when you have two distinct groups of points and you want to find the elements in the second group that are closest
With my first open source software (OSS) experience over a decade ago, I was ecstatic. It was amazing to learn how easy it was to download the latest version on my personal computer, with no initial license fee. I was quickly able to analyse datasets using various statistical methods. Organisations
