Here on the Data Roundtable we've discussed many topics such as root-cause analysis, continual improvement and defect prevention. Every organization must focus on these disciplines to create long-term value from data quality improvement instead of some fleeting benefit. Nowhere is this more important than the need for an appropriate education strategy, both in
In a recent post, I talked about the 5 essential characteristics of cloud computing. In today’s post, I will cover the three service models available in the cloud as they are defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST. Like the story of Goldilocks, when it comes
As teachers across 35+ states are evaluated, and sometimes compensated, in part by the academic growth of their students, there may be an unintended consequence. Teachers may question whether to accept student teachers, in fear of the student teacher bringing down their value-added estimate(s) and overall evaluation rating. How can
A student in a SAS class recently asked if there were a way to eliminate data error notes from the SAS log and, instead, write them to a separate file. Of course there's a way! Here's a simple datastep. Notice the missing dollar sign to indicate the variable GENDER (M,
If you have SAS Enterprise Guide and SAS for Windows installed on a machine together, they should Just Work. There is no special setup required. But...what if they don't? I've posted an article in the SAS Enterprise Guide community about this topic. Read the article to learn: How to select
So much for a single version of the truth.
Last year, my SAS Simulation Studio R&D team began a discrete-event simulation modeling project of a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with two doctors from Duke University’s Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. After several initial meetings discussing such things as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), patent ductus arteriosis (PDA), and
SAS University Edition has been available for free download for six months – in that time we’ve seen 50,192,670 PROCs or DATA steps executed globally – that’s almost 4,000 hours duration! Now, we were founded on stats so we thought we’d bring you some of the key metrics we’ve discovered over
There’s a lot of talk about modernizing hospitality marketing – and most of it is dependent on finally cracking the nut between online and offline guest data and bringing predictive analytics to play. But there is a fundamental problem hampering our ability to do this and it starts with how hospitality
Did you know??? The largest gingerbread man in the world is a dieter’s nightmare, weighing in at a whopping 466 pounds, six ounces. The Gingerbread House, in Rochester, Minnesota, baked the giant cookie on February 21, 2006. An average of 5,800 people end up in the ER after suffering injuries
Pascal's triangle is the name given to the triangular array of binomial coefficients. The nth row is the set of coefficients in the expansion of the binomial expression (1 + x)n. Complicated stuff, right? Well, yes and no. Pascal's triangle is known to many school children who have never heard of polynomials
SAS Support Communities provide a forum in which to engage and share with your fellow SAS experts, now in over 20 topic areas including Forecasting and Econometrics. This is the go-to website for your hard core modeling questions, such as "Holdouts in PROC ARIMA," "2-stage Heckman (1979) procedure," and the
As 2014 slowly winds down it’s time to gear up for the holiday shopping rush. As in recent years the Consumer Electronics Association reports tech gifts will again be high on everyone’s list this holiday shopping season. A new addition to the list this year are numerous Internet of Things
Just a reminder that on Wednesday, December 3, 10:00am ET, Paul Goodwin will be delivering the next Foresight/SAS Webinar on "Getting Real About Uncertainty." From the description: Many forecasts only tell us about things like probable events, expected sales and prospective demand. Often they tell us nothing about the level
The holiday season is a wonderful time of year – steeped in tradition, family and friends, and giving. This time of year has also created a burgeoning shopping period with decorations appearing by Labor Day! In 2012, the 92nd Street Y in New York and the United Nations Foundation tried a new
I have probably touched on this topic many times before: accessing the data that has been loaded into a master data environment. In recent weeks some client experiences are really highlighting something that is increasingly apparent (and should be obvious) for master data management: the need to demonstrate that it
There are multiple types of data models, and some companies choose to NOT data model purchased software applications. I view this a bit differently. I think that any purchased application is part of our enterprise, thus it is part of our enterprise data model (or that concept is part of the
A common question on SAS discussion forums is how to compute the minimum and maximum values across several variables. It is easy to compute statistics across rows by using the DATA step. This article shows how to compute the minimum and maximum values for each observation (across variables) and, for
When you examine where most data quality defects arise from, you soon realise that your source applications are a prime culprit. You can argue that the sales team always enter incomplete address details, or the surgeons can't remember the correct patient type codes but in my experience the majority of
➤ DISCLOSURE! In June 2018 Google introduced changes to the way it handles its Maps platform. They now require API key in order to embed a map, plus Google Maps "projects" must now be associated with a billing account. Unless these new Google rules are met, Google maps described in
Calling All Forecasters Have you tried Forecast Value Added analysis? What did you find out? Are you willing to share your learnings (at least those that can be revealed publicly)?Would you like to be featured in a new blog series on FVA, published by the Institute of Business Forecasting? The IBF was
I generally don’t use this blog to air my personal experiences, but recent events have reminded me of a few things that I think would benefit our Analytic Hospitality Executives and their organizations to also be reminded of. This past week, I took my fifth trip to Asia this year.
Data. Our industry really loves that word, making it seem like the whole world revolves around it. We certainly enjoy revolving a lot of words around it. We put words like master, big, and meta before it, and words like management, quality, and governance after it. This spins out disciplines
Several new capabilities and components are available in SAS Environment Manager 2.4, the web-based administration solution for a SAS environment. For me, the most important enhancement is probably the SAS Environment Manager Service Management Architecture Framework, which provides features and functions that enable SAS Environment Manager to fit into a
I've written about how to generate a sample from a multivariate normal (MVN) distribution in SAS by using the RANDNORMAL function in SAS/IML software. Last week a SAS/IML programmer showed me a program that simulated MVN data and computed the resulting covariance matrix for each simulated sample. The purpose of
Having worked in analytics for over 25 years, I’ve never really felt part of the ‘cool gang’. However that’s changing and all of a sudden, at long last, it is "chic to be geek!" Research published by SAS UK and the Tech Partnership reveals that from 2013 to 2020, the
As Sheldon Cooper would say, this is the first episode of "Fun with Charts". I did not find a cool term like "Vexillology" and "Cartography" is taken by map making, so let us go with "Chartology". Yesterday, I saw a couple of interesting bar charts as shown on the right. I thought
A lack of mental health professionals is pushing the US mental health system to a crisis point. And even if a psychiatrist commits someone to a facility, there may not be a bed for them. A startling 55 percent of all US counties have zero psychiatrists, psychologists or social workers
The 2014 INFORMS Annual Conference in San Francisco was quite a success. Record attendance, diverse program, great city, lovely weather: who can ask for more? SAS and, in particular, SAS/OR was well-represented with a number of talks in all areas of operations research. Here is a somewhat arbitrary selection, please click
Can you spare a few minutes to assist researchers at the Lancaster Centre for Forecasting? We have been commissioned by the European Journal of Operational Research to write a review article on Supply Chain Forecasting. In undertaking this task, we would like to ensure that the topics covered reflect the priorities
