A lot of technology conferences are celebratory in nature. They showcase new products, highlight customer successes and provide a platform for authors, analysts and industry experts to praise these accomplishments. To be sure, there was plenty to celebrate at the SAS Global Forum Executive Conference. But this year’s conference -
Tag: business analytics
A number of the sessions at today's SAS Global Forum Executive Conference included discussions about how IT and business leaders can best collaborate on business analytics projects, or how analysts and business decision makers can best work together. In one panel I attended, "Retail and Manufacturing Analytics: Driving Business-Building Insights
From posterous photos of Opening Session to the New York Times Bits Blog, the first blog posts about SAS Global Forum are starting to show up online. Writing on the Bits Blog, Steve Lohr says: Analysts who have looked at the new offering – and tried it out – are
In a recent Datamation article, "Business Intelligence Software and Predictive Analytics," Jeff Vance asks, "What exactly is predictive analytics?" His answer, in part: "Take traditional business intelligence, combine it with data mining and add on statistical analysis and you have predictive analytics. Math geeks will squabble over the nuances, say,
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament is big business and March Madness is exciting, but is the selection process fair? Using the SAS Analytics-powered "Dance Card" formula developed by Jay Coleman of the University of North Florida, Mike DuMond of Charles River Associates, and Allen Lynch of Mercer University,
Twenty-four sessions, twenty-four speakers, twenty-four different topics over just two days, and I didn’t just sit through the convention as a participant, no, I moderated the entire two day event as its Chairman. The Financial Forecasting and Planning Summit, organized by the IE Group, and held at the DoubleTree Mission
Attending the Predictive Analytics World (PAW) Conference is truly a rewarding experience. Compliments go to Eric Siegel and the conference organizers for assembling such an interesting cast of case studies and speakers. Day 2 kicked off with a key note from Kim Larsen from Charles Schwab & Co. on net
The last time I mentioned Accenture on this blog, I linked to their recent survey results, which show that companies are recognizing the value of predictive analytics – and are planning for it. What does that mean for business analytics vendors? In a lot of ways, it means business leaders
The National Association of State CIOs has just released an issue brief that has me very excited. “DO YOU THINK? OR DO YOU KNOW? Improving State Government Operations Through Business Analytics” gives an overview of business analytics and includes examples of effective implementations. The brief’s title paraphrases the quote “Do
Last week was a busy one in the world of business analytics. The biggest news for SAS is our ranking as a leader in predictive analytics and data mining by an independent analyst firm. In The Forrester Wave: Predictive Analytics and Data Mining Solutions, Q1 2010, SAS earned top overall
Day one of the 2010 CFO Corporate Performance Management Conference in New York is in the books, and while the day’s presentations and discussions should rightly merit being the prime subjects of this post, those events have been overshadowed by one of even greater magnitude: dinner with Thornton May. Where
~ Contributed by I-kong Fu ~ AnalyticsCamp is an unconference started by Nathan Gilliatt after a group of us met at a networking meeting in Raleigh last year called Web Analytics Wednesday. The first AnalyticsCamp will take place at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill on Saturday, February 6th,
“The ability to predict future business trends with reasonable accuracy will be one of the crucial competitive advantages of this new decade," SAS CEO Jim Goodnight told students, faculty and business partners at a Jan. 15 Villanova University School of Business event. “And you won’t be able to do that
Business leaders, who wish to base their decisions on fact and logic rather than emotion or instinct, probably follow a thinking process that lends itself well to the application of business analytics: What has caused this issue to be brought to my attention? If not from an external source (e.g.
I’ve read and heard many stories in the past several months about credit card companies that are reacting to the economic downturn by reducing credit limits and hiking interest rates without first warning the cardholders. This latest article in Bloomberg Markets gives a good explanation of the institutions’ reasoning. The
SAS Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Jim Davis talks about how Business Analytics are playing a bigger role within companies. Web Links: SAS.com:http://www.sas.com/apps/webnet/SGF2009VideoBlog/index.html?videoID=isgf09ep24
I’ll admit I am particularly fond of a saying, “Begin at the beginning.” All too often we get ahead of ourselves when trying to tackle a problem. And without a clear understanding of the full scope of a problem, there’s always the risk of making it worse. Something like this
Saw an interesting Tweet (a post on Twitter) from investor and writer Paul Kedrosky today: "geeks only: five best data visualization projects of the year http://is.gd/cwIk" The link takes you to the FlowingData blog (created by a PhD statistics student in NY), and a post on some amazing examples of
Doug Henschen, Intelligent Enterprise Editor-in-Chief, in a recent blog post, provides his usual insightful analysis of the market as he cuts through the dizzying spin of IBM exec Ambuj Goyal. The general manager of IBM’s information management division questions the value of business analytics in an interview with Intelligent Enterprise.
In the long-running television sitcom “Seinfeld,” Jerry’s neighbor (and nemesis) Newman often commented on his job as a U.S. postal worker. Making fun of the mail; and post office; was a recurring theme. In the show’s final season, one episode was even titled “The Junk Mail I was reminded of
Tired of all the depressing news about the economy? Me too. That’s why it was oh so refreshing to hear some good news this past week. I got a firsthand look into how SAS is helping companies weather -- and in some cases, thrive – in our current "challenging" economy.