Did you ever experience a time where you hear or see the same thing over and over again? Whether you chalk it up to coincidence, immersion or saturation, you clearly start seeing the same ideas or topics discussed in multiple places. Lately, I have been hearing about the topic of
This is a dramatic interpretation of an actual conversation I recently had with the CIO of one of North Carolina’s leading cities. We discussed his experience using data quality, data integration, business intelligence and analytics in the daily operation of the city. I may have taken some...well, a lot of
My colleague Matt Fulk and I were looking for a follow up to our white paper, Lead Management Automation Using SAS, which covered our evolution with marketing analytics. One initiative that has really been rewarding to work on has been the internal implementation of our Customer Experience Analytics solution. For me,
A senior manager in the analytics product management group, Tonya Balan sees herself as a bridge between SAS customers and R&D, ensuring that SAS products stay relevant to the needs of the customer. With a background in statistics and experience as a college professor, Tonya shares her excellent advice and
Recently, there has been lot of uproar and confusion about the Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Many were surprised by the ruling, and others, while happy it was upheld, are concerned about the constitutional questions that arose due to the way the ruling was
As leaders and managers of human beings with million year-old brain structures, as part of our managerial toolkit we need to keep ourselves knowledgeable about psychology and the cognitive science of how people make decisions. You have undoubtedly read about how innately bad we are at making certain types of
Fire department operations are very complex, with multi-faceted missions that include not only fire prevention and suppression, but emergency response and fire inspections. These must be coordinated with area growth and development decisions, and water system management decisions. When a fire or an emergency occurs, the right equipment, with the right people,
Very soon I will introduce the newest Analytic Hero, joining Illumino in our mission to control data chaos. Here's a sneak peak of our newest league member:
We have come very far in our journey (I started this series in March) to the 10 best practices from education customers for information management, reporting and analytics. Lets’ recap our journey of the previous nine blogs: Securing executive sponsorship. Identifying and involving stakeholders early and assessing their unique needs.
Thanks to Illumino, the citizens of Datapolis are still able to get their medicine and Frackture is being kept at bay; however we both have our hands full and a new crisis is on the horizon. Our data scientists and engineers have informed me that a new evil force is
We've introduced the topic of the Four E's and discussed the role of analytics in Enforcement and Engineering. Now let's delve into Emergency Response. A quick emergency response can make all the difference in saving the lives of crash victims. Many vehicles can now communicate directly with emergency responders immediately after
Most management literature and studies posit that organizations with a clear mission and work objectives, understood by all levels of the organization, are the most productive. The key to that success is effectively communicating the mission, agreeing on key performance indicators and giving employees at all levels access to relevant
The Centre for Economic and Business Research is a respected economic consultancy. Earlier this year we asked them to look at the value of analytics to the UK today, and forecast the likely growth of analytics over the next five years. Their full findings can be downloaded here. But why
We have come very far in our journey to 10 best practices from education customer for information management, reporting and analytics. We are up to Best Practice #9: Empower Users by Providing Training and Self-Help Materials. Most education professionals will need training in order to understand data, reports and analytics.
Recently, there has been a lot of noise around the beltway about "big data" and analytics, and what it means for government. Last week, SAS hosted the 11th Annual Government Executive Leadership Summit which focused on exploring that very subject. Held at the Newseum in downtown D.C., the event attracted
We've all heard of her. A little blond girl with a penchant for trespassing, and very finicky preferences in mattresses and breakfast food. Unfortunately, Goldilocks isn't just part of a fairy tale, she is alive, well, and causing havoc throughout government. If you haven't made the connection yet, "bear" with
Michael Mandelbaum posed the question in the title of this post to a capacity crowd at last week's SAS Government Leadership Summit. Author of That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back, Mandelbaum gave the opening keynote address. Mandelbaum posited
When I was growing up, summertime always meant a road trip to see my grandparents and great-grandparents in Concord, California, just outside San Francisco. Most of our time in Concord was spent shuffling between relatives but my parents always made time for a day trip into San Francisco. On these
It is exciting and overwhelming when you first get new software for information management, reporting and analytics. This is especially true once your users first get their hands on the data and new reports. I recall first hand when I was a system engineer and had been with SAS for
In my last post, we discussed the best way to process and deliver reports to stakeholders. So now that that you have launched the portal and users are happily using it, the work doesn’t stop there. Almost immediately, you need to start gathering feedback from users about how they are
We're at stop #3 on the crash analytics highway. We've introduced the topic of the Four E's and have discussed the role of analytics in Enforcement. Now let's talk about Engineering. Safety, reliability and accessibility are all key components in road design. Traffic engineers work to make the driving environment
Yesterday’s SAS Financial Services Executive Summit included a session titled “Big Data for the Next Big Idea,” which was moderated by SAS CMO and EVP Jim Davis , and included executives from organizations whose size tells me these people know exactly what big data is: Aditya Bhasin from Bank of America, Robert
We had the good fortune to have Ralph Thomas, Ph.D., VP of Strategic Analytics and Database Marketing from Seminole Gaming, participate in our integrated marketing management panel at the 2012 SAS Global Forum Executive Conference along with his colleagues from Office Depot and Best Buy. Each panelist presented a short
As we begin the second half of our series on the 10 best practices for information management, reporting and analytics let’s review what we have learned so far. We now understand the importance of securing executive sponsorship, identifying and involving stakeholders early and assessing their unique needs, identifying and integrating
We are half way through my blog series counting to 10 best practices for information management, reporting and analytics. To recap, we have learned the importance of: Securing executive sponsorship. Identifying and involving stakeholders early and assessing their unique needs. Identifying and integrating data sources. Managing user expectations proactively. This
Last week I introduced this series. Today I begin to dive deeper into each of the four E's. First up? Enforcement. In 2009, there were 5.5 million police-reported traffic crashes. Law enforcement officers work diligently to prevent crashes by enforcing traffic safety laws pertaining to, among other things, seat belt
Like Vince said a few days ago, you don’t have to be Goliath to see how the intersection of big data and high performance analytics creates competitive advantage. Let’s also be realistic though: compared to someone like Walmart, pretty much everyone’s David! While Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank may not be the largest companies by global measures, they’re still
Bill Franks’s new book, Taming the Big Data Tidal Wave: Finding Opportunities in Huge Data Streams with Advanced Analytics, has just released. This book shows how big data is changing the world of analytics; what people, processes, technologies, and mindsets are necessary to succeed in analytics in this new era;
I had the distinct pleasure today to hear Guy Kawasaki deliver a keynote address at the SAS Global Forum Executive Conference 2012. I thought of his engaging address as a nice guide for personal effectiveness, particularly in a professional realm. And my main takeaway from yesterday's keynote address by Joe
So far in our journey of the best practices for information management, reporting and analytics, we have learned about the importance of securing executive sponsorship, having a solid understanding of stakeholders needs and integrating all the data needed to make this happen. Now that stakeholders realize that you know their
