Key Happenings
 Dr. Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS, was in Ottawa on April 4 to keynote the Statistics Canada Information Technology Conference. The conference was focused on exploring different methods to define common architectures that can be applied across the organisation to reduce IT costs and improve efficiency. A major theme of the conference was how these solutions must be part of new approaches for aligning the technology to the needs of the organisation.

Faced with budget constraints and growing demand of information sources, managers are looking for effective, rapid and economical methods of delivering information services. Because information technology is complex and clients are increasingly feeling the effects of this complexity, managers are looking for innovative and simplified solutions to meet the ongoing information needs of their users.

Goodnight's keynote address focused on the evolution of business intelligence and the emergence of what he called the "era of analytics." Increasing numbers of organisations are turning to business intelligence and analytics to gain competitive advantage, to improve operational efficiencies and to innovate. In keeping with the theme of the conference, Goodnight made the case for standardizing on a common "enterprise intelligence platform" that would provide the architectural and business process foundation for better decision making. He also talked about the need for organisations to move past "historical" reporting and analysis and look to areas like data mining, forecasting and predictive analytics to drive even greater value from information assets.
Education News
The July – December 2007 schedule is online. Learn to harness the full power of SAS® from the people who know it best – SAS Education. We’ve recently added training dates for July through December to our schedule on the Web. You can also request a copy be mailed to you.
New to Canada
Offered for the first time in Canada, Applying Survival Analysis for Business Time-to-Event Problems is a course designed and presented by Michael J. A. Berry or Gordon S. Linoff, founders of Data Miners Inc. and co-authors of Data Mining Techniques and Mastering Data Mining. It is designed for anyone who wants to learn about applying time-to-event analysis to business problems, including business managers, SAS programmers and programmers using other software. Statisticians might also find the course useful, although the content is focused on business solutions rather than statistical rigor. For the complete course details, go to: http://www.sas.com/apps/wtraining2/coursedetails.jsp?course_code=bisa&ctry=ca
SAS® Certification Update
We have developed a new Live Web instructor-led programming refresher course to help you prepare for SAS Certification. The SAS® Certification Review: Base Programming for SAS®9 course reviews the key exam content areas, including accessing data, creating data structures, managing data, generating reports and handling errors. This course not only ensures that you review most of the topics on the exam but also prepares you for the exam's question-and-answer format.
SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks \or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2007, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.