As always at this time of year, I like to highlight some of the related analytical content at the upcoming conference, and those readers not going can expect to benefit from the windfall of papers and online videos that will follow SAS Global Forum 2015. This year, the lineup looks
As part of two of our client engagements, we have been tasked with providing guidance on an analytics environment platform strategy. More concretely, the goal is to assess the systems that currently compose the “data warehouse environment” and determine what the considerations are for determining the optimal platforms to support
I was recently asked by a customer if they should move the responsibility for creating the statistical baseline forecast. They were considering moving it from their regional country offices to their global headquarters. In addtion, they were considering changing the role of their regional demand planners to only make adjustments to
The adoption of data analytics in organisations is widespread these days. Due to the lower costs of ownership and increased ease of deployment, there are realistically no barriers for any organisation wishing to exploit more from their data. This of course presents a challenge because the rate of data analytics adoption
Editor's note (1/13/16): This post has been updated with full paper presentations from SAS Global Forum 2015. Enjoy! This year, the number of presentations, Super Demos and workshops to help with the administration of SAS software and its hardware infrastructure is growing at SAS Global Forum 2015. This is wonderful news to
People are talking about your products. But more importantly, they’re listening. Facebook, Twitter, review sites, and product forums are just a few of the sources that a savvy customer checks when making a buying decision. This reality has fundamentally changed the definition of quality. It’s no longer sufficient to conform
I love avocados! The creamy texture seems to go perfect with just about anything! My favorite combo is avocado and egg, they are a match made in heaven! But avocados are great on salads, in sandwiches, wraps, smoothies, soups, and even desserts! Luckily avocados are also a nutritional powerhouse!
A common question from statistical programmers is how to compute the rank of a matrix in SAS. Recall that the rank of a matrix is defined as the number of linearly independent columns in the matrix. (Equivalently, the number of linearly independent rows.) This article describes how to compute the
The date of Easter influences our leisure activities Different from many other public holidays, Easter is a so-called movable holiday. This means that the Easter bunny brings more than just eggs for the statistician - he brings special Easter forecasting challenges. In the year 325 CE the Council for Nicea
One of our customers asked if I could show him how to reproduce a stickman graph that David McCandless (ala, Information is Beautiful) had created - see screen capture below. I'm not sure that it's the best kind of graph for the occasion, but of course SAS can be used
SAS Global Forum is great for seeing how others use SAS, both in a formal presentation environment as well as during informal conversations at mixers and meals. However, I always allow a little extra time when traveling to and from SAS Global Forum to see a little of the city
“Begin with the end in mind” - Habit #2 from Stephen Covey’s ‘Highly Effective People’. The Edge Foundation is based on the premise of: “To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them
Most of you probably don’t know this, but my undergraduate major was geography. That’s right, geography. Is it because I love maps? Well, actually, yes, I do, and my friends and family can tell you that my “go-to” present is always the most recent edition of the Atlas of the
Well okay maybe you can't hear us, but at least you can read what we have to say. Although, I'm not ruling out an occasional video or podcast entry. One of the best kept secrets at SAS is the incredible domain expertise that comes to work here everyday, ready to
It’s been just over a year since my appearance at SAS Global Forum 2014 last year (if you can remember, I was the crazy one who memorized Pi to 1000 digits and wore silly colored glasses on stage while I recalled them), and since then I have been very busy.
You may feel like the world is moving faster than ever. If so, then you can take solace in two facts: You're not alone in feeling this way. You're right. It is. Celebrating the 25-year anniversary of the Web, The Economist ran a piece examining the increasingly rapid adoption of new technologies.
The 2015 SAS Global Forum is in Dallas, TX, and I'll be there. There are many talks to see and people to meet, so thank goodness for the agenda builder, which enables you to create a schedule in advance. I always enjoy talking with SAS customers about statistics, simulations, matrix
Copy/paste is my favorite method for creating new SAS programs. In my work projects, I maintain a sort of genealogy of SAS programs, because the DNA of one program can be used to spawn many other SAS programs as its progeny. When things (inevitably) aren't working as I intend in
What do terabytes of data, elephants, and red hats all have in common? Or said another way, what do the three companies Teradata, Hortonworks and RedHat all have in common with 36 other brand-name companies and universities? They are all SAS partners and sponsors for SAS Global Forum 2015.
In the traveling salesman problem (TSP), a salesman must minimize travel distance while visiting each of a given set of cities exactly once. Recently, the TSP has generated some buzz in the popular media, after a blog post by Randy Olson. The tour shown was not quite optimal, and Bill
JBF Special Issue on Predictive Business Analytics Dr. Chaman Jain, professor at St. Johns University, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Business Forecasting, provides his preview of the Winter 2014-15 issue: Predictive Business Analytics, the practice of extracting information from existing data to determine patterns, relationships and future outcomes, is
It’s great to get in on something on the ground floor. That’s what happened at the inaugural Data4Decisions Conference and Exhibition held in Raleigh, NC, in March. It brought together business people, academics and students to explore how organizations use data management and analytics technology to enhance business processes and
Would you rather see a list of the world's 50 best roller coasters, or an interactive map? (... how about both!) Before we get started on this ride, here's a picture of my friend Jennifer's daughter, getting an early/young start on riding roller coasters (she's in the back, with her
In my last blog post, I introduced SAS Visual Analytics for UN Comtrade, which helps anyone glean answers from the most comprehensive collection of international trade data in the world. I’d like to share some of what we learned in the development process as it pertains to big data, high
Last week, Sara Jones shared a list of sample session agendas designed to help you build your personal SAS Global Forum 2015 schedule. But what if there are other areas of interest or topics you’d like to focus on? This is the first in a series of blog posts that
The topic of fracking has been in the news a lot lately - this blog post explores some of the finer points of plotting opinion data related to fracking ... I recently saw the following graph on dadaviz.com. It showed some interesting data, and presented the data in a way
A deep-rooted belly laugh can do so much for your body, mind and spirit. Just the other night, my 15 year old daughter was shredding some items for me so she could earn a little spending money. The shredder indicated six pages maximum, but it really should have said one
The Monty Hall Problem is one of the most famous problems in elementary probability. It is famous because the correct solution is counter-intuitive and because it caused an uproar when it appeared in the "Ask Marilyn" column in Parade magazine in 1990. Discussing the problem has been known to create
Just this morning, the course leader at our newly created SAS Space & Astronomy School told me that they picked up a broadcast signal from outer space. By analysing all the data they have been collecting, they were able to quickly spot a spike in the trend pattern, which helped
It's a common problem: Your organization collects vast amounts and types of data – but it's spread across different departments and locations in various formats and systems. It’s a massive challenge to make all that data available, connected and usable to everyone who needs it. That was the scene at
