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
For many industries, big data analytics have opened numerous doors for more employees to be groundbreaking and to challenge the corporate status quo. Prior to big data technologies, risk taking behaviors were primarily reserved for provocative souls who stretched organizational boundaries to disrupt industries, such as airline revenue management. There were winners and losers
Don't be shy! Interviewing people BEFORE or AFTER a facilitated session just takes a bit of confidence, and good preparation. Building your confidence gets easier and easier the more you participate in interviews. The objective is to prepare and not waste anyone’s valuable time. I like to prepare notes based on
With Turkey Day coming up in a couple days, one thing I know I'm looking forward to is help from my parents, so my husband and I can catch up on some much needed sleep....oh the joys of being parents of little guys! This week, I'm pleased to
SAS software contains a lot of features, and each release adds more.To make sure that you do not miss new features that appear in the SAS/IML language, the word cloud on the right sidebar of my blog contains numbers that relate to SAS or SAS/IML releases. For example, you can
Well, this is a kick to the giblets. I assumed when I was summoned to the White House it was in recognition of my tireless advocacy for turkey rights. I wasn’t expecting a press conference in the rose garden or anything, just a meet and greet with the prez and
Not all fraud originates from the dark underground of criminal enterprises. In fact, fraud could literally be right under our noses, or in the cubicle next to us. The “Insider Threat” has many names – internal fraud, occupational fraud, even espionage – and uses authorized internal access and knowledge to
Every day there are news stories of fraud perpetrated against federal government programs. Topping the list are Medicaid and Medicare schemes which costs taxpayers an estimated $100 billion a year. Fraud also is rampant in other important federal programs, including unemployment and disability benefits, health care, food stamps, tax collection,
Many managers still perceive data quality projects to be a technical endeavour. Data being the domain of IT and therefore an initiative that can be mapped out on a traditional project plan with well-defined exit criteria and a clear statement of requirements. I used to believe this myth too. Coming
Arrays are a powerful SAS programming tool. They can be used to simplify coding for repetitive calculations, to transpose data and to evaluate variables in a non-sequential manner. Sometimes users are intimidated by the term array, but in SAS, an array is simply a grouping of variables that lasts for
My colleagues at the SAS & R blog recently posted an example of how to program a permutation test in SAS and R. Their SAS implementation used Base SAS and was "relatively cumbersome" (their words) when compared with the R code. In today's post I implement the permutation test in
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the INFORMS Annual Meeting in San Francisco. For those of you not familiar with this organization or conference, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is the largest society in the world for professionals in the field of operations
Hadoop recently turned eight years old, but it was only 3-4 years ago that Hadoop really started gaining traction. It had many of us “older” BI/DW folks scratching our heads wondering what Hadoop was up to and if our tried-and-true enterprise data warehouse (EDW) ecosystems were in jeopardy. You didn't
When it comes to fraud detection and risk mitigation, predictive modeling has earned a reputation as the “heavy hitter” in the realm of data analytics. As our celebration of International Fraud Awareness Week continues, I would challenge our readers to ask themselves this question, “Is the reliance upon predictive analytics
Today’s healthcare system is under tremendous pressure to reduce overall costs without losing track of the patient. Legislative changes and challenging economic realities make it increasingly difficult to deliver both improved outcomes and cost savings for the most complex patients. The Physicians Pharmacy Alliance (PPA) recognizes the changing healthcare landscape
During a migration to a new release of SAS software, the SAS Migration Utility is used to analyze and package your source software. There are two ways that you can get the SAS Migration Utility. It’s available by selecting SAS Migration Utility from the Downloads page on support.sas.com. The SAS Migration
When I think of Cream of Something Soups, I immediately envision iconic 1950s ads of creamy casseroles made by happy, smiling home cooks in aprons and pearls. My second thought then quickly turns to: what are those cream of...something or other...soups really made of?! The answer: WATER, MUSHROOMS, VEGETABLE OIL
I sometimes wonder whether some functions and options in SAS software ever get used. Last week I was reviewing new features that were added to SAS/IML 13.1. One of the new functions is the CV function, which computes the sample coefficient of variation for data. Maybe it is just me,
Often, we have data where most of the observations are clustered within a narrow range, with a few outliers positioned far away. When all the data is plotted, the axis is scaled to accommodate all the data, thus skewing the scale. Techniques to handle such data have been addressed earlier
There's recently been a "States I've Visited" application going around on Facebook, where users create a map showing all the US states they've visited, and then post it on their page for their friends to see. I wondered if SAS could do a better job?... Here's a screen-capture of one
On a cold and wet December morning in 2008, at approximately 1:30 AM, I pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned supermarket in Arlington, TX. With sleet pelleting my windshield, I saw three additional sets of headlights enter into the parking lot from different directions. All three cars converged
Many vendors claim they have analytics, and a lot of users have embraced the belief that analytics is the way to go. But what does analytics really mean, especially to business users without statistics backgrounds, and how much do they need to know about analytics to be able to make
All of us are familiar with common fraud types. Insurance fraud, credit card fraud, identity theft, and tax evasion are among the most recognized areas. But, there are many other fraud types that have a big impact on our daily lives, yet receive little attention in the media and among
Perhaps nowhere is the saying “time is money” more true than in the construction industry. There is no better indicator of project cost and budget over/underrun than the number of days on-site. Reducing that number has a near 1:1 relationship with cost cutting, so it’s no wonder that days on-site
Is fraud like a snowflake, and every one is unique? Not really. There is, however, an increasing number of methods and schemes that show up and expand the range of issues we need to look for every day. To celebrate International Fraud Awareness Week this year, I'm going to spend
Recently, I spoke with Sally Carson about the Junior Professional Award, a SAS Global Forum 2015 program for people who have used SAS three years or less. The award offers free registration, free training and lots of opportunity to learn and become involved. This is the third year that Junior
Have you ever noticed that some SAS/IML programmers use the CALL statement to call a subroutine, whereas others use the RUN statement? Have you ever wondered why the SAS/IML language has two statements that do the same thing? It turns out that the CALL statement and the RUN statement do
This week I had the opportunity to present a 1/2 day seminar on creating clinical graphs using the SG procedures during an In-House SAS Users' group meeting. I have presented this seminar quite a few times now, and I always learn something. The audience was very receptive, with some people
Business forecasting is a highly politicized process, subject to the biases and personal agendas of all forecasting process participants. This is why many -- perhaps most -- human adjustments to the forecast fail to make it better. And this is why relative metrics, such as FVA, are so helpful in
Big data is of no use unless you can turn it into information and insight. For that you need big analytics. Every piece of the analytics cycle has been impacted by big data, from reporting, with the need to quickly render reports from billions of rows of data, through advanced
