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Analytics

Find out how analytics, from data mining to cognitive computing, is changing the way we do business

Advanced Analytics | Analytics

Mike GillilandJune 13, 2014 0

Weather forecasts: deterministic, probabilistic or both?

In 1965's Subterranean Homesick Blues, Bob Dylan taught us: You don't need a weatherman / To know which way the wind blows In 1972's You Don't Mess Around with Jim, Jim Croce taught us: You don't spit into the wind By combining these two teachings, one can logically conclude that:

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Advanced Analytics | Analytics

Mike GillilandJune 12, 2014 0

Guest blogger: Len Tashman previews Summer 2014 issue of Foresight

Our tradition from Foresight’s birth in 2005 has been to feature a particular topic of interest and value to practicing forecasters. These feature sections have covered a wide range of areas: the politics of forecasting, how and when to judgmentally adjust statistical forecasts, forecasting support systems, why we should

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Analytics

Eric HunleyJune 12, 2014 0

Projecting prison resources in North Carolina with analytics

In 1990, the North Carolina General Assembly created the Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission to evaluate sentencing laws and policies and recommend any modifications necessary to achieve policy goals. As part of the mandate, the General Assembly required the Sentencing Commission to develop a correctional population simulation model. The model

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Analytics | Data Management

Analytics Hollywood Star

Suzanne ClaytonJune 12, 2014 0

Analytics should have a starring role in Hollywood

From managing excess DVD inventory to optimizing digital distribution channels, Hollywood’s supply chain transformation in the last decade has been massive. Knowing this background, and having spent a good part of my life surrounded by the entertainment industry, I was intrigued and inspired by the recent Entertainment Supply Chain Academy

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Analytics | Data for Good | Data Visualization

Robert AllisonJune 11, 2014 0

Tracking sea turtles with SAS

SAS software can be used for many things - here's how you could use it to help save endangered sea turtles! You've seen SAS used to track endangered wildlife by the shape of their footprints, and help run Texas Parks & Wildlife. Now, how about tracking the movements of (and thereby helping

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Advanced Analytics | Analytics

Mike GillilandJune 3, 2014 0

Upcoming forecasting conferences

We're entering the busy season for forecasting events, and here is the current calendar: Analytics2014 - Frankfurt The European edition of Analytics2014 kicks off tomorrow in Frankfurt, Germany. Five hundred of the leading thinkers and doers in the analytics profession hook up for two full days of interaction and learning.

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Analytics

Leo SadovyJune 3, 2014 0

Analytics – Easy as One, Two, Tree

Insights from decision trees and other basic analytic techniques show that you don’t always need complex analytics to solve business problems and add value. This was the message from Dr. James (Jim) Foster, Director of Research and Process Development, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), at last month’s inaugural IE Group ‘Manufacturing Analytics

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Analytics

Georgia MarianiMay 21, 2014 0

Ask the statistician: Explain how statistics touch our everyday lives

So far in our Ask the Statistician blog and video series, we have heard responses from statisticians at the Analytics 2013 conference about: The many ways statistics benefit their organizations. The types of statistical analyses used to solve business issues. Best practices for explaining results. How they put statistical

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Analytics

SAS team at Axeda Conference

Lane WhatleyMay 15, 2014 0

Adding intelligence to the Internet of Things

Imagine this scenario: Every device we encounter in our day-to-day routine – from our refrigerators and automobiles to our water and gas meters – has embedded sensors that read real-time information and generate unfathomable amounts of data. Now take this scenario one step further. Imagine what kinds of insights we’d

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Analytics | Students & Educators

Nadja YoungMay 15, 2014 0

Top rated value-added school: Extreme test prep or well-rounded experience? A student’s perspective

A recent Charlotte Observer article provided a thoughtful investigation of growth and achievement in North Carolina’s Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools). The article juxtaposed two very different, yet highly effective, schools. The first, Ranson Middle School, is a low-achieving school with 84% poverty that demonstrated the highest academic growth of any similar

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Education | Government

Analytics | Data Visualization

Robert AllisonMay 14, 2014 0

A visual analysis of rising sea levels

In light of the recent reports that glaciers in Antarctica are melting, what SAS graphs might be useful in analyzing the data?... When floating sea ice melts (such as at the North Pole), it doesn't raise the sea level - but when ice on land melts (such as glaciers at

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Analytics

David SmithMay 13, 2014 0

How does your organisation rate in the 8-metric analytics test?

What if you could rank where you stand versus your industry peers when it comes to how effectively you're making use of your data through analytics? Now you can. Jim Davis, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at SAS, outlined an eight-metric test at today’s Premier Business Leadership Series

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Analytics

Carl FarrellMay 13, 2014 0

Analytics: the prescription for health care

The US health care industry is always getting a bad rap. It takes heat for being too expensive or not efficient enough or just too complicated. We know we need it, and that living long and healthy lives requires it. But we also know we love to complain about it

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Analytics

Georgia MarianiMay 9, 2014 0

Ask the Statistician: Can you share examples of success from your statistical analyses?

In my previous post in the Ask the Statistician interview series, we heard from statisticians at the Analytics 2013 conference discuss the how their statistical results are put into action within their organizations. Now let’s learn more about their specific examples of success they have had utilizing these results. Check out

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Analytics | Data Visualization

Robert AllisonMay 6, 2014 0

SAS Wonder Twin powers ... activate!

All my friends seem to be having twins these days (below is a picture of my friend Holly's twins, for example) - I wondered if I could use SAS to analyze this twinning trend ... When I was growing up, way back in the day, twins seemed to be rarity.

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Analytics

Aiman ZeidMay 5, 2014 0

Building an analytics culture

All Analytics spoke with several leaders at the recent SAS Global Forum Executive Conference on what it means to build an analytics culture. Here’s a video of those conversations. The video features several sections related to building an analytics culture: Kim Nevala, Director of Business Strategy for the SAS Best

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Analytics | Data Management | Data Visualization

Mary OsborneMay 4, 2014 0

May the Fourth Be With You!

I'm an avid Star Wars fan, and am cautiously optimistic about what J.J. Abrams intends to do in Star Wars VII. The cast for the movie was revealed earlier this week, and today is May the Fourth, an unofficial Star Wars holiday. You might be asking yourself what any of

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Advanced Analytics | Analytics

Mike GillilandApril 30, 2014 0

A naive forecast is not necessarily bad

As we saw in Steve Morlidge's study of forecast quality in the supply chain (Part 1, Part 2), 52% of the forecasts in his sample were worse than a naive (random walk) forecast. This meant that over half the time, these companies would have been better off doing nothing and

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Analytics | Data for Good | Data Visualization

Robert AllisonApril 29, 2014 0

Analyzing 60 years of tornado data with an animation

With tornadoes in the news lately, I wondered how I might could use SAS to analyze tornado data. How about animating 60 years of tornado path data? ... I was using Google to search for ways to analyze tornado data, and found an example on ustornadoes.com that animates the tornado

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Analytics

Alyssa FarrellApril 28, 2014 0

Battling the buzz on big data analytics for energy

I was asked to speak recently on a topic that includes two hyped terms: Big data and sustainability. At the risk of igniting an anti-buzzword campaign, I added a third over-used term to that list: analytics. Even though individuals and companies use those three words – big data, sustainability, and

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Advanced Analytics | Analytics | Customer Intelligence

Carl FarrellApril 28, 2014 0

Baskets full of benefits from analytics

With as much as I travel, I have to confess that I’ve become a bit of a food snob. And for good reason, I might add. Two days in a Chilean hospital will make anyone stick with what they know and trust. After that experience, it was just me and

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Analytics | Data for Good | Data Visualization

Robert AllisonApril 28, 2014 0

Tornadoes: Picking up the pieces with SAS

Last night, here in the U.S., an outbreak of deadly tornadoes tore across several states. Unfortunately, nobody knows how to predict a tornado with certainty, but let's brainstorm on how SAS Software can help analyze the data in the aftermath of a natural disaster like this... Being a graph guy, the first

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Analytics | Data Visualization

Michael ThomasApril 25, 2014 0

Using virtual reality to understand big data

What if virtual reality technology allowed you to immerse yourself in big data? That could be your future – and sooner than you think. It happened in August 2013 at the University of Washington: the first direct brain-to-brain communication, with one researcher controlling another researcher’s brain over Skype. Maybe in

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Advanced Analytics | Analytics

Mike GillilandApril 24, 2014 0

Forecast quality in the supply chain (Part 2)

As we saw last time with Steve Morlidge's analysis of the M3 data, forecasts produced by experts under controlled conditions with no difficult-to-forecast series still failed to beat a naive forecast 30% of the time. So how bad could it be for real-life practitioners forecasting real-life industrial data? In two words:

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Analytics | Data Management | Data Visualization

Jennifer Griess

Jennifer GriessApril 23, 2014 0

Connecting the dots between higher education and IT

In our hyper-connected world, information technology plays a key role in nearly every field and industry. Higher education is no exception, and that’s where EDUCAUSE comes in. This non-profit association works to advance higher education through the use of information technology. One of the primary ways EDUCAUSE achieves its goal

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Advanced Analytics | Analytics

Mike GillilandApril 23, 2014 0

Forecast quality in the supply chain (Part 1)

The Spring 2014 issue of Foresight includes Steve Morlidge's latest article on the topic of forecastability and forecasting performance. He reports on sample data obtained from eight business operating in consumer (B2C) and industrial (B2B) markets. Before we look at these new results, let's review his previous arguments: 1. All

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Analytics

Leo SadovyApril 22, 2014 0

Agility and the Analytic Sandbox

Analytics gives us not just the ability but the imperative to separate our planning activities into two distinct segments – detailed planning that leads to budgets in support of execution, and high-level, analytic-enabled business/scenario planning. My critique of Control Towers in this blog last time led me not only to

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Advanced Analytics | Analytics

Mike GillilandApril 17, 2014 0

Guest blogger: Len Tashman previews Spring 2014 issue of Foresight

Here is editor Len Tashman's preview of the new Spring 2014 issue of Foresight. In particular note the new article by Steve Morlidge of CatchBull, reporting on an analysis of eight B2B and B2C companies, which we'll discuss in a separate post. An organization’s collaboration in forecasting and planning has

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Advanced Analytics | Analytics

Mike GillilandApril 16, 2014 0

Q&A with Steve Morlidge of CatchBull (Part 4)

Q: How would you set the target for demand planners: all products at 0.7? All at practical limit (0.5)? A: In principle, forecasts are capable of being brought to the practical limit of an RAE of 0.5. Whether it is sensible to attempt to do this for all products irrespective

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Analytics

Georgia MarianiApril 9, 2014 0

Ask the Statistician: Putting statistical results into action

So far in this Ask the Statistician series, we heard statisticians at the Analytics 2013 conference discuss the benefits of statistical analysis, the types of statistical techniques they use to solve their business problems and how they share their statistical results with non-technical audiences that need to use this information. So, the next step

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