The small and medium-sized business segment is growing – in the US and worldwide – and SAS has the expertise and drive to support them.
Nowhere was that more evident than at the SAS headquarters when Susan Duchesneau, Head of North America SMB Practice at SAS, welcomed more than 100 guests from 94 organizations to the SMB Summit.
“We want you to leave inspired by how AI and analytics can take your business to the next level,” she said. Offering practical ideas and providing networking opportunities were two other goals of the Summit. “By the end of today, you should have some practical ideas on how to get started with analytics and AI,” Duchesneau said.
Jenn Chase: ‘SAS is a small-business story’
The power-packed lineup did not disappoint, starting with Jenn Chase, CMO, who reminded the audience that SAS is also a small business story and provided an overview of where we are now. But with 12,000 employees, a presence in 140 countries and 70,000 customer sites, SAS has become “a large community of decision-makers, business leaders and practitioners of data and AI we want you to be a part of.” That support, she noted, is extended even further with 1,700 global partners who believe, as SAS team members do, that data and AI can change the world.
“We now have over 3,000 SMB customers in the US alone,” she said, adding that SMBs help drive our product roadmap.
Bryan Harris: Tech forward for SMBs
CTO Bryan Harris started the analytics and AI conversation with an overview of the many ways SAS is helping organizations of every size. SAS, he said, is helping create unparalleled customer experiences while increasing productivity and revenue throughout operations in every industry. “It’s exactly what we can do with each of you here,” Harris said.
From customer intelligence to risk reduction, low code/no code solutions, and industry-specific options, he encouraged participants to “benefit from the 48 years of leadership in this area that SAS has done.” But he noted that as business owners, they have the most important voice in the conversation and know the problems that need to be solved.
Doug Farren on the state of the SMB Market
Doug Farren, Managing Director, National Center for the Middle Market, returned to the Summit this year to provide the latest trends, insights and projections for the small and medium business market.
“We’re seeing big company problems with small company resources,” Farren said. The talent war is one example, he noted, where smaller organizations compete with large businesses for experienced workers. More than half of middle market organizations are experiencing a degree of digital skill gap, he said. “Without the right workforce and team, they push the brakes on growth. We don’t want to see this.”
Kara Hart on getting started
Kara Hart, Senior Manager of Pre-sales Support, offered practical advice on getting started with AI, beginning with building the business case. She doesn’t believe a lack of talent or experience should hold organizations back, noting that 42% of SMBs will rely on tech vendors to get started.
“Start now,” Hart said. “There is no data problem too big or business question too small to get started today.”
David Gardner: Analytics and forecasting combos
Perhaps one of the most relatable sessions to business owners in the audience involved David Gardner, the Director of Analytics at Boddie-Noell Enterprises. Boddie-Noell owns 330 Hardee’s fast-food restaurant chains, employs more than 10,000 people and generates more than 40 million daily records. Before starting at the firm, Gardner had a background in accounting and had never seen or used SAS. But with the help of SAS training (with a special callout to Customer Success Manager Dominique Weatherspoon) and Rob Stevens, VP, First Analytics and SAS partner, he was able to clean up the company’s data and get things structured to see insights they never realized were there. The first year they attempted an hour-by-hour sales forecast over a full-day summary report, SAS only missed the forecast by 0.1%.
“Without SAS, we wouldn’t have been able to do that,” Gardner said.
Kristi Boyd talks ethics in AI
Kristi Boyd, Sr Trustworthy AI Specialist in the SAS Data Ethics Practice, offered practical guidance on ethical considerations as organizations embrace AI – efforts that can affect organizational reputation and customer trust.
“Gone are the days when you can say, ‘The computer told me to do it,’” she said. “Trustworthy AI is asking not just can we do something, but should we?” She encouraged participants to develop technology and AI in a way that aligns with the values of their organizations and recommended they talk about organizational AI strategy.
AI expert panel — Why SAS?
Duchesneau welcomed several experts and practitioners to the stage for a lively panel discussion focused on embarking on AI. What follows are comments from each speaker’s remarks and a second quote detailing part of their answer to an audience member’s question: “Why did each of you choose SAS?” Also, you can watch the full panel discussion video at the end of this section.
DJ Penix, President and Founder, Pinnacle Solutions
“You have the most valuable asset in getting started in the AI journey: you. You know your business better than anyone else. Understand what your key metric is. It might be something you’re already doing well, but could you do it faster?”
Why SAS? “As a SAS partner, we have options. We actually evaluate every year: Does it make sense to add other technology partners to our base? We are exclusive to SAS as our data warehousing, our ETL, and our analytic platform. … We don’t do other things. Why? Number one, we feel they’re the only end to end solution that can do it all – from data collection, data governance, data quality, all the way to the back end of it. Number two, with the R&D investment they make, they have more and more of the latest and greatest tools that are coming out every year. For us, the choice is easy. … Open source is going to be another common thing. We get a little of that skillset with kids coming out of college with that. But SAS has embraced that and we can integrate open source now with the whole SAS ecosystem. Model ops, too. Automation. We feel that’s the only platform out there that can really productionize that real time. … You can build some models open source, but getting it into production is a pretty difficult, expensive and time-consuming problem.”
Bill Strachan, Director of Analytics Technology, Credit Acceptance
“We put the power of SAS on top of our data and were able to mine the data for new opportunities, ask questions and start to figure out what the next use case is on our analytical roadmap. It’s having an enterprise-wide, sophisticated, end-to-end platform that isn’t stitched together by spreadsheets and one-off processes.”
Why SAS? “One of the reasons we chose SAS was for the processing power and the reliability of their programming language.”
Mindi Manes, Director of Outcomes Analytics and Research, Brooks Rehabilitation
“Showing end users the value of what you’re doing will help you sell what could come next.”
Why SAS? “We were looking for a good visual analytics tool that would be user-friendly for end users but also for our very small data solutions team (13 people). We needed something that was easy for them to learn and easy for them to build. We assessed everything on the market at the time and SAS came out on top. We also evaluate every year … and we’ve been very happy with our selection of SAS.”
Ben Zenick, Chief Technology Officer, Zencos
“Some people are concerned that AI is going to take their job. I view AI as an opportunity to do my job! I’m using AI to develop RFP responses and evaluations.”
Why SAS? “I would look at scalability factors, growth factors, what integrates with my entire ecosystem, and make the decision based on that. In most customers we deal with [SAS] fits that criteria. Can I put something in the cloud and scale my platform? Even if I’m on-prem, can I scale? What provides that capability without me having to make an investment just to have infrastructure sitting around? … For most use cases, it’s a great fit.”
Chris Barthel, VP Information Systems, Analysis Group, Inc
“Every time a client comes in, we end up with two things: a giant pile of data and a question. … Having that question you’re trying to answer, especially in the beginning, is just as important. That question becomes your guiding principle, your framework, your guardrails to get you started.”
Why SAS? “We probably have every analytics tool in our environment, but SAS is kind of our bedrock that we go to for all of it. We’ve been a strategic partner for a long time and we’ve worked together for a long time because SAS is always there as a leader, right there with us as we are tackling bigger, crazier, more complex problems.”
Closing keynote — Danny Rosin talks ‘enlightrepreneurship’
Danny Rosin, Co-Owner & Co-President of Brand Fuel, wove humility (“I earned more demerits than anyone in the school, ever”) and humor (“Here’s a picture of my twin brother and me in the yearbook, only I don’t have a twin brother”) into his inspiring closing keynote. As a fellow business owner, Rosin encouraged attendees to invest in social impact, be original, be a challenger and inject the fun. “Your dreams and your day job can and should coexist,” he said. From initiating the first Happy Club at his high school, an effort that has grown to more than 900 student chapters, to launching Band Together, a North Carolina organization that uses the power of live music to donate more than $13 million to local nonprofits, Rosin showed how fun volunteerism can be a multiplier for business. It’s a philosophy he calls “enlightrepreneurship” and one that resonated well with the Summit audience.
Don’t miss “5 lessons business leaders can learn from an unconventional journey,” Blog Editor Caslee Sims’ take on Rosin’s moving remarks. Feel free to share on your social networks!
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