Government organizations are seeking new and innovative ways to use an abundance of data – both internally for government operations and externally to provide the public with greater access to information. This intersection of open and internal government data is the topic of a Route Fifty webinar taking place on
There is no doubt about it – over the past few years there has been a monumental shift in how we think about “enterprise” data management. I believe this shift has been motivated by four factors: Open data. What may have been triggered by demands for governmental transparency and the need
Imagine your company's analytics environment is like an old apartment building, with each unit having its own air conditioner. Each air conditioning unit has to be individually maintained and repaired by the building landlord or "super." The air conditioning units come from different manufactures and are of varying ages. It can be challenging, to
When creating a statistical graphic such as a line plot or a scatter plot, it is sometimes important to preserve the aspect ratio of the data. For example, if the ranges of the X and Y variables are equal, it can be useful to display the data in a square
Times have changed. As the oil industry shutters and sheds investments that made sense during the two-year period in which oil rode comfortably above $90, the market is establishing a new equilibrium at $40/barrel. This despite the fact that the Baker Hughes domestic rig count is down 64 percent. It’s
“(Teaching) is an incredible opportunity to be a catalyst for what we want the future to be," says Shannon Hardy, a 21-year math and science teacher from The Exploris School, a Wake County charter school in Raleigh, NC. Ms. Hardy uses data not just as a summative measurement tool, but
One of the frustrating outcomes of the data import process is when a variable that you need to be numeric is imported as character. This often happens because the column of data contains non-numeric data, for example, where blanks in a database are exported as “NULL” instead of a true
A matrix is a convenient way to store an array of numbers. However, often you need to extract certain elements from a matrix. The SAS/IML language supports two ways to extract elements: by using subscripts or by using indices. Use subscripts when you are extracting a rectangular portion of a
You could argue that it’s misguided for someone like me to say data science doesn't have to be difficult. After all, I’ve been in the industry for many years and should have a few tricks up my sleeve for dealing with data. But with the latest data visualisation technology –
As consumers have moved to digital channels and digital interactions, competition for the hotel consumer has increased dramatically. Now, hotels not only compete with each other, but also with third-party online distributors, and even new disruptors from the sharing economy like AirBnB. However, hotels have one advantage that these other
SAS Global Users Group and SAS have a history of giving back to the community where the conference is held. We think giving back is important. Conference attendees have played a big part in contributing to this effort every year. Over the years, the opportunities where attendees have been able
What happened to the adage, "What gets measured, gets done"? Though progress is being made, there are too many child protection agencies that have yet to understand the profound impact data-informed policy and practice have on performance outcomes, as well as staff retention and satisfaction. Without dipping deep into the
The ODS statement controls most aspects of how SAS creates your output results. You use it to specify the destination type (HTML, PDF, RTF, EXCEL or something else), as well as the details of those destinations: file paths, appearance styles, graphics behaviors, and more. The most common use pattern is
Sometimes you are writing a program that needs to find out whether a particular SAS product (like SAS/ETS, SAS/QC, or SAS/OR) is licensed. I was reminded of this fact when I wrote last week's blog post about how to create a map with PROC SGPLOT. Although the SGPLOT procedure is
Many readers in applied areas (business, health, psychology & sociology, education, and several others) are reading statistics texts under duress for a course or project, and are in truth somewhere between disinterested and terrified. In my new SAS Press book Business Statistics Made Easy in SAS® I knew that I
If your graphics look a little on the fuzzy or blurry side, there are lots of ways to increase the resolution of your SAS graphics output. Let’s go over some of these methods. Before increasing the resolution of your graphics output, check to see what you are creating your graphics
In my previous post, I discussed some of the challenges and costs organizations face when they’re stuck in Excel hell with no real data strategy. Now that we’ve discussed the problem, let’s dive into the solution. Every organization needs a data strategy with these building blocks: Your top priority is
The holiday season is a festive time of the year. But it can also be a nail biter for retailers. Months of planning can be sidetracked by fickle consumers or aggressive pricing from competitors. Paying attention to even a little bit of data can work wonders. In October, SAS conducted
John Beale was one of the highest paid government employees. A 10-year veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Beale defrauded the Federal Government of nearly $1M in employment wages and fraudulent travel. Beale came under suspicion after it was noticed that the he was still being paid wages 19
I have written a new book on advanced ODS Graphics examples. It is available as a free PDF file on the web. It is in color, and all of the SAS code is available by double clicking a link at the beginning of each example. Advanced ODS Graphics Examples Update:
Here in the US, we've got the Thanksgiving holiday coming up soon. And the keystone of this holiday is a big dinner, with lots of traditional Thanksgiving foods. But where does all this food come from, and which farmers should we thank for which of the food items? I use SAS
Learn the top 5 reasons for managing data where it lives – whether it's in database or in memory, in the cloud or in-stream.
In my previous blog post, I took you through the amazing adventure of Grape Camp in Sonoma, California. As you learned in that post, Sonoma Valley is near and dear to my heart because of its beautiful terrain, quaint boutique wineries, sustainable agricultural practices and, of course, it’s award winning
Barbarians are relentless, and they are inside the gates! That didn't go well for the Romans, and they had the most advanced technologies of their day. So how do we do better against the relentless waves of cyber barbarians attacking virtually everywhere? The answer to that is analytics, which offers early
Identity fraud typically conjures thoughts of credit card scams or stolen Social Security numbers. Medical identity fraud is often overlooked, but can be a crime that kills. On the black market your medical identity can be worth as much as $50 per person versus $1 for a Social Security Number.
From time to time we’ll hear from customers who are encountering performance issues. SAS has a sound methodology for resolving these issues and we are always here to keep your SAS system humming. However, many problems can be resolved with some simple suggestions. This blog will discuss different types of
As a fitness and health professional, I know better. But I still find myself splurging on my favorite comfort foods (burritos, pizza, pasta, etc). Okay, maybe splurge is too mild of a word. I admit it. I tend to go totally overboard at times! What I’m talking about is eating
Know your data. Do a needs analysis. Organize for success. Empower users. These are four best practices for data and analytics that you'll want to hear more about. In my first three posts in the Analytics in Real Life blog series, we learned how higher education customers are using SAS and why
Did you know that you can use the POLYGON statement in PROC SGPLOT to draw a map? The graph at the left shows the 48 contiguous states of the US, overlaid with markers that indicate the locations of major cities. The plot was created by using the POLYGON statement, which
.@philsimon on whether data governance is still relevant.
