Rome was not built in a day. Similarly, high-performance analytics is a product of many cumulative architectural, computational and analytical advances. The ability to solve complex business problems by applying algorithms from multiple disciplines to increasingly large volumes of data of all types - both structured and unstructured - is
Agility. I've been giving a lot of thought to the term while here in San Diego for the TDWI World Conference. "Evolving Your Agile BI Environment" is the theme of this year's event and "agility" has definitely been embedded in the conversations I have had with customers the past few
Everyone within the health care community recognizes that the traditional ‘pay-and-chase’ model for fraud cost reduction has some serious limitations. Recovery of the lost funds is in some cases a mere single digit percentage point (with some exceptions – but not many) of the moneys paid. And the effort and
Recently, I was able to spend a morning with a group of analytics executives at the SAS Power Series in Chicago. I enjoyed it a lot because instead of pontificating about analytics to them, I got to hear about their challenges and approaches in a workshop format. There were a
I am one of those rare people that enjoys process; not rigid process and military-like discipline, but order. Wasted effort drives me insane. I’ve been on projects all through my career where I feel like the project teams are constantly reinventing the wheel, because nobody bothered to capture any documentation
On July 13, I attended one of the most interesting business events of my 30 year career, The SAS Power Series in Chicago. What made it so interesting is that the attendees, senior executives from a variety of industries, provided most of the content. The interactive half-day session focused on
Contributed by Chad Austin, SAS Internal Communications The Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) is historically the world’s largest society for professionals in the field of operations research (OR) and management science. Recently, Manoj Chari, Senior R&D Director responsible for operations research at SAS, served on a panel
A popular custom among the diminutive hobbits of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth was giving away presents on their birthdays instead of receiving them. This week, SAS toasted its birthday, celebrating 35 years as an analytic innovator, by giving its customers a gift: the latest version of SAS analytics and data management
In an era when software updates are a dime a dozen, why should you care about SAS 9.3 being available today? With help from my colleagues and fellow bloggers here at SAS, I give you these top ten reasons: When you fill out your brackets during March Madness next spring,
Contributed by Amy Prince, SAS Marketing Operations Same stuff, different year is what comes to mind following our first Power Series session in Minneapolis earlier this month. What’s different this year? The SAS Power Series is a NEW, highly interactive, dynamic few hours designed to address some of the biggest
Contributed by Bob Messier, Senior Director of Business Analytics, SAS Last week I participated in the SAS Power Series event in Minneapolis. It included about 23-30 folks representing a broad range of industries. Analytics was the central topic of the event. What is analytics? How do you get your organization
Contributed by Thornton May, IT Futurist On June 15, 2011 twenty plus analytic pioneers from twelve different vertical markets convened to explore the current state and future trajectory of enterprise analytics. Each participant in The SAS Power Series event brought with them intellect, energy, curiosity and a challenge. During the
I have recently discovered “mind mapping.” Mind mapping is not a new concept, but since I (re)learned it, I’ve found it to be an excellent tool for analyzing business problems and processes. I thought you might find it interesting too! Here’s an example: The other day, I was thinking about
The SAS office in New York City has one of the best views in the city. Sitting on the 47th floor of a skyscraper on 7th Avenue, the Executive Briefing Room overlooks Central Park and it has a highly distracting view – especially on such a nice sunny day. What
In the world of technology, 2011 is unremarkable in some ways. As with every year, there are hot trends – hype, buzzwords and “must-have” technologies. Some might even assign analytics to the trending category this year. 2011 marks the 35th anniversary of the founding of SAS. For the past 35
Organizations have become good at finding answers to questions. Where they need to improve is in asking the right questions, according to Dries Van Nieuwenhuyse, General Manager Performance Management USG People Interservices NV. “IT people tend to be applied scientists whose job is to answer specific questions but in analytics,
The Premier Business Leadership Series focused largely – and rightly – on the business benefits of analytics. But driving those benefits requires a serious analysis of the business environment and what is going to deliver most value to the organization. Looking at what was done in the past won’t cut
At the Insight Session on Business Performance, Processes and Systems, George Ioannou, Professor of Operations Management at Athens University of Economics and Business said truth resides in data. But finding that data is like trying to find a pirates’ treasure buried on a desert island. It takes more than
Jim Davis, CMO at SAS reckons he has seen more change in business and economics in the past two or three years than in the previous 20. “To succeed in business you have to innovate, you have to do brand new things. Only problem is, that brings risks,” Jim said
To re-use an old phrase: “May you live in interesting times.” And we certainly do. Today, Fareed Zakaria addressed these interesting times in his keynote address at The Premier Business Leadership Series, titled "A Roadmap Out of the Economic Crisis." Asked, “Which one of the following economic regions do you
Last year Jim Goodnight shared the stage with Bill Green (the then CEO of Accenture) and talked about what it takes to build an analytical organization. This year Dr. Goodnight was with Pierre Nanterme, the current CEO of Accenture and they talked about what it means to lead an analytical
One of the astonishing benefits of my job is getting to travel to beautiful places around the world to meet with customers and prospective customers at The Premier Business Leadership Series conferences. This year is no exception, the historical city of Antwerp as our backdrop, where hundreds have gathered to
SAS is the underwriter of a MeriTalk study released today that focuses on “The Federal Efficiency Opportunity”. The study uncovered meaningful insights into how federal managers and professionals are trying to meet their goals while facing enormous budget cuts. The study was done after President Obama’s Deficit Commission suggested in
The basic big data problem is simple to understand: we create too much data to store and analyze it all. The problem gets bigger, however, when you consider the related factors: our problems themselves are getting bigger, the analytics needed to solve them are more complex and the data is
As editor of the SAS Business Report, I constantly analyze what’s “clicking” for readers and what’s not. So far in 2011, the following articles have been the biggest hitters: Advanced Analytics for the Modern Business Analyst SAS Placed in Leaders Quadrant for BI Top Five Big Ideas in Analytical Data
“Our performance last month was 46.” Oh, you don’t have to thank me, I was just doing my job. Not very well, I might add. 46? 46 what? Or 46 who’s? Without context, 46 is just a number, just data. In context, perhaps that’s 46 out of 48 (not too
Are we oversimplifying customer segmentation and treatment strategies? SAS Marketing Director Jonathan Hornby thinks so. He also believes customer lifetime value should include an understanding of sentiment, influence and the value of collaboration with your customers. In fact, if you're not factoring these items into your customer segmentations, you're probably
I recently conducted a financial planning exercising to focus on savings – after all, college tuition rates are climbing and by the time my son goes to school in 18 years or so, I may be looking at $60,000 a year for a public university. Now is the time to
A midsize regional health insurer with approximately 3,000 employees across 10 locations in the Western United States created a role for a business continuity manager (BCM) reporting to the chief operating officer. In this organization, the enterprise risk management (ERM) functions, established in 2004, are owned by the chief legal
At the SAS analyst event in Steamboat, CO, in March, SAS CEO Jim Goodnight shared some interesting stats with attendees: Even in 2010's tough economy, SAS experienced 5.2 percent worldwide growth in US dollars. On top of that, SAS is still building new facilities, still winning workplace awards, and this
