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VP Alliances and Business Development - Pat Finerty After 28 years of growth in the Canadian marketplace, SAS is taking additional steps to lay the groundwork for the next generation. The newly formed Business Development organization at SAS Canada has a mandate to invest with an eye toward the long term in new, targeted industries to increase SAS usage and impact. SAS is launching an integrated Healthcare Users Group in Ontario. We have commitments from leading healthcare organizations including Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC), Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Studies (ICES), Cancer Care Ontario and users of the Wizard for Hospital Indicator Collaborative (WHIC) tool in Ontario hospitals. Bringing together this large community will be a terrific opportunity to share best practices using SAS and support the results-driven healthcare agenda. In addition to this new user group, other developments in healthcare include the recent commitment of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to SAS’ Health Insight and Prediction Platform (HIPP). HIPP is being used to generate forecasts and insights into hip replacement surgeries and the factors affecting this procedure in the province over the next 13 years. This information will be used to determine medical school funding and investments in preventative action to help balance our system's ability to keep up with the demand for this important service. HIPP will perform similar analyses on other procedures such as knee replacements, cornea surgeries, cardiac conditions and many other ailments that are increasing wait times in the province. Stay tuned for more information on these and other initiatives! On another front, SAS Canada experienced growth of a different sort: Canadian participation at SUGI. We had a record-setting 165 Canadians attend SUGI 31 in San Francisco – the largest Canadian turnout ever for a U.S.-based SAS Users Conference. At the conference, SUGI announced that it was changing its name to SAS® Global Forum, beginning in 2007. This was done by the executive committee to reflect the growth of SUGI into industry tracks geared towards management. With a record-breaking attendance of 4,269 participants, SUGI is certainly ready for the next phase in its growth! The new Super Demos--short pre-scheduled demos to provide quick overviews of many SAS technologies, and a Networking lunch on Tuesday with a keynote featuring The Extreme Kindness tour: Val, Chris Erik and Brad--four 28-year old Canadian "goodlums" --were also highlights from this year's SUGI experience. At the President’s Dinner for Canadian Users Group presidents, Mark Lucas was named as the 2005 winner of the Customer Value Award. Finally, to kick back, network and enjoy a scenic view of the San Francisco bay, Canadian users assembled at Ghirardelli Square to compare notes and make plans for next year’s SAS® Global Forum (SUGI) in Orlando. Walt Disney World, here we come!
Discussion Forums open another channel of interaction with and among SAS customers We are excited to announce user discussion forums. Our discussions are just getting started on a few favorite subjects, like integration with Microsoft Office, SAS Enterprise Guide, ODS, clinical trials, and stored processes. Visit the forum site today to read focused discussions containing a variety of tips, questions, and problem solutions. We hope that you will join in to share your knowledge as well as learn a few tricks along the way. SAS® Training at the Quebec Government SAS training is the best way for a user to tap into the full power of SAS, and it's now easier then ever before for employees of the Quebec Government to receive high-quality SAS training. Thanks to a new agreement between SAS and the “Centre de services partagés” (via the “Fournitures et Ameublement du Québec” services - FAQ), SAS public courses are now available through the infofaq Web site of the FAQ at a special discount. The course list and the registration process are in the section reserved for SAS under the “Software - Manufacturer” menu. User Group Meetings:
Mark Lucas - 2005 SAS Customer Value Award Winner I was first introduced to SAS in 1994, and it was extremely overwhelming! A digital VMS mainframe running SAS 6 (or was it 5?), strange-looking code, thousands of functions and a room full of manuals. I came to discover that SAS was extremely powerful. With only a few lines of code, SAS could produce results that would require hundreds, if not thousands of lines of code in other programming languages. For the next 10 years, SAS was just one of the many tools I used to support the Registrar’s Office at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2003, I became a full-time SAS programmer and advocate. I accepted a position leading a warehouse development project using SAS and assisting my new department in switching from Macs running SAS on mainframes to using desktop SAS on Windows and through remote connections on a Solaris SAS server. To learn more about Mark, including his Techie Tip click here
Barb Crowther Sometimes I think there are employees who were born after I first started using SAS (but then I know it’s just a figment of my imagination, because SAS wouldn't hire anybody that young!!). For more on Barb, including her Techie Tip click here
Fulton Lee Before SAS, I worked in a variety of industries including insurance, banking, higher education, telco and health research. For more on Fulton, including his "Techie Tip", click here.
SUCCESS -Saskatoon User-Centered Community for an Enriched SAS Society In 2003, the University of Saskatchewan began using SAS data warehousing tools to build an institutional data warehouse. As we acquired resources for the project, it became apparent that a SAS user community would be helpful for the project staff. Some staff attended a SAS users group meeting in Regina, and from there, the idea of a Saskatoon group blossomed.
Thought Leadership Technology and Education - Ten Emerging Insights Integrating technology and education has never shown greater promise. This paper, written by Mark David Milliron, Ph.D., vice president of the SAS Education and Medical Practice, discusses 10 important insights for educators as they begin to use enterprise intelligence systems to improve and expand teaching, learning and institutional management. Download your copy of this insight-bringing thought leader white paper. |
by Bill Fehlner In the August 2005 issue of INSIGHTS, I discussed the hash object, a new addition to the DATA step in SAS®9. The hash object is dynamic, and rows can be added to a lookup table in memory as a large master file is processed sequentially. This article presents a method of assigning surrogate keys with the help of such a dynamic hash object. This approach eliminates the need for sorting a large data set. A second example in this article shows how a hash object can implement a search through a lookup table for a minimum value. The search is done for each row in a large master file without requiring a temporary work file or a sort step. This example uses the hash iterator object to retrieve data sequentially from a hash object.
Title: The Complete Guide to SAS Indexes "I thought I knew indexes inside out, but I certainly learned more about how SAS processes, and how I can exert more control over index usage. This book begins with excellent background on 'what's in it for me' and then provides a solid explanation of what SAS is actually doing. Michael Raithel effectively demonstrates HOW to create and use indexes; but more importantly, he explains WHEN to use (and NOT use) indexes. "The beginner will be able to make smart choices about index creation and usage and will be able to easily implement indexes. The experienced user will learn excellent tuning tips. "This book is a 'must read' for any SAS programmer who works with large SAS data sets!" For more on this book click here For tips and techniques from your favorite SAS Press authors click here
SAS Calgary will host a BookRunner User Group Meeting in May. Self-Paced e-Learning Discount for Faculty, Administrators, and Students Learn more...
Join Forecasting Experts at the F2006 Business Forecasting Conference! Deliver Award-Winning SAS® Training to Users Across Your Organization SAS OnlineTutor is training software that can be installed on individual user workstations or deployed over a corporate intranet. This tutorial covers beginning, intermediate and advanced programming, and is a cost-effective option for any organization that wants to train several SAS programmers. For more information, visit SAS OnlineTutor for beginning or intermediate SAS programming and SAS OnlineTutor for advanced SAS programming. Contact us at 1-877-SAS-INST for more information and pricing. New Courses Added to Live Web Schedule
Inside SAS Web Series Our premiere web seminar is a Spotlight on Enterprise BI Server held on April 25 at 1 p.m. EST. The seminar will feature Justin Choy and Ken Matz bringing the topics of WRS, AMO, and IDP covered in our Hands-On BI Workshops to your customer’s desktop.
Gartner Positions SAS in BI's Leaders Quadrant SAS unveils 10 business intelligence solutions
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