SAS Certification hits the big 4-0

The SAS Global Certification program concluded 2011 with a bang by awarding the 40,000th SAS credential.  Program growth has continued to accelerate ever since the 1999 launch, with a dramatic 53% growth in the total number of SAS certifications awar…

3 SAS Display Manager shortcuts

How we love shortcuts. Our life seems more efficient with them. I try to take the earlier train for a good parking spot that lets me exit early. Actually change that to any spot (my train station has tons of commuters with FEW parking spaces so gettin…

RStudio in the cloud, for dummies

You can have your own cloud computing version of R, complete with RStudio. Why should you? It’s cool! Plus, there’s a lot more power out there than you can easily get on your own hardware. And, it’s R in a web page. Run it from your tablet. Run i…

Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day!

data one;
do t = 1 to 3*constant(“pi”) by 0.05;
x = 16*sin(t)**3;
y = 13*cos(t) – 5*cos(2*t) – 2*cos(3*t) – cos(4*t);
output;
end;
run;

data two;
set one;
if _n_ = 70 then label = “Valentine’s …

Reporting 101: Lessons Learned

Wow – it’s a very exciting time to have an analytics career!  You may have read the Preparing Yourself for Analytics Job Tsunami post at BeyeNetwork last week, which basically said we are headed for a shortage of analytics or data-minded people.  Oh … music to my little analytic-trained, big-data-lovin’ ears!  The article was pointing to the McKinsey & Company thoughts from last May about the arrival of big data and what it would mean.  I liked this particular point:   “There will be a shortage of talent necessary for organizations to take advantage of big data. By 2018, the United States alone could face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep analytical skills as well as 1.5 million managers and analysts with the know-how to use the analysis of big data to make effective decisions.“   -McKinsey Global Institute May 2011    Analysts with the Know-How to use the Analysis My favorite moment with customers is when I show them their data as a chart or graph and they say something like  ”This is what I’ve been trying to say!” or “No wonder this situation is happening.”  Suddenly, the issue they  have been having with employee productivity, another department, or […]