Welcome to the latest issue of In the Know, the bi-monthly newsletter for SAS users.

It's often been said that you can't manage what you can't measure. IT professionals are frequently called upon to implement solutions that measure the costs and benefits of business activities. Usually these solutions require close collaboration between business managers, consultants and IT specialists. Nowhere is this more so than with Activity Based Management (ABM), the theme of our main Technology & Solutions feature.

Our second Technology & Solutions article looks at Service Level Management. In this case, the business managers and the IT managers are the same people. The new SAS Service Level Management Solution helps IT departments to align their activities more closely to business objectives and demonstrate the value they deliver.

Of course, you cannot reliably measure anything without high quality data, a topic we highlight with news of a course we're introducing later this year. We also report back the results of our customer survey - we're doing great, but you gave us some good ideas for improving things further. Plus we have more of the Hints & Tips that you find so valuable.

Finally, if you didn't make it to seugi 21 in Vienna, we're providing some useful links to help you catch up on what you missed and don't forget you can now register your attendance for the UK User Forum, which is taking place in London on 15 October and Cumbria on 28 October.

SAS Data Mining Tools Drive Growing Segment of Business Intelligence Market
According to a recent IDC report ranking vendors based on worldwide revenue for business intelligence (BI) tools, SAS maintained its leadership of the data mining segment with 36 percent market share, while continuing to be one of the leaders of the overall BI tools market.

SAS International Users Gather in Vienna for seugi 21
SAS International increased its focus on technology and applications at this year's seugi in Vienna … and the delegates loved it. For those of you who missed the event we have included some of the main announcements, technology topics and themes under discussion.

Don't miss this year's User Forum taking place in London on 15 October and Cumbria on 28 October. They provide the perfect opportunity to hear current news from the world of SAS - hear about the latest SAS technology developments, exchange best practices with other users and learn how they are using SAS software. Visit our web now for the chance to apply to present your own SAS experiences, influence the content of this year's forum and register to attend (receiving a 50% discount on the full delegate fee). CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Morgan Stanley Identifies its Best Customers using SAS Data Warehouse and Data Mining Capabilities
Morgan Stanley's CRM data mart houses five terabytes of data from at least 30 different sources. From outside demographic and life cycle information to internal information on revenues, fees, transactions, products purchased and attitudinal information, the brokerage captures a wealth of data. To match all that data to a specific client or household, Morgan Stanley turned to SAS for data warehousing, cleansing and analytic solutions. TECHNOLOGY & SOLUTIONS

SAS Activity Based Management - Integrated Financial Intelligence for Smarter Decision Making
Senior corporate managers are increasingly asking IT departments to implement ABM (activity-based management) systems. From a technical perspective, there are three main elements to focus on: effective data management, deploying powerful modelling tools, and providing a clear path for business intelligence. However, success depends not only on the technology as on effective consultancy and project management.

New Release: SAS Service Level Management
The new SAS Service Level Management Solution leverages existing SAS technology investments to demonstrate the true business value of the IT function. With such a system, IT management can shift the focus away from measuring inputs and costs to measuring outputs and benefits such as Quality of Service.

SAS Enterprise Guide: New White Paper Available
'SAS Enterprise Guide - A Roadmap' is a new SAS Business Intelligence white paper. It focuses on the capabilities of Enterprise Guide to enable business analysts, statisticians and SAS programmers achieve their goals while increasing productivity. It also examines how users are able to access this powerful tool to quickly create simple or complex analytic reports and distribute them with greater ease. Download and view a free copy online. SUPPORT & SERVICES

Customer Support Survey: Key Findings
In our April/May issue, we told you about our Customer Support survey that we were conducting. The results are now in and 95% of our customers in the UK and Ireland are positive about the service we provide. However, we're never complacent and realise there is always scope for further improvement.

Come Clean in 2003 on our New Data Quality course
74% of organisations are planning to do something about data quality this year. SAS is helping with a new course designed to aid organisations to clean their data thus improving both profitability and productivity.

SAS Education: Register for the New Brochure
SAS Education continues to reflect your educational needs by producing new and updated courses, workshops and seminars. To receive your free copy of SAS Education's update brochure for courses in 2003, and the new 2004 brochure available later this year, please register your details online.

SAS Professional Services: Leading the Pursuit of Excellence
SAS software is used to learn from the past, monitor and communicate the present, gain insight into the future and quickly react to change. But could you do more? Tell us about the issues that you face today and allow SAS Professional Services to lead you in the pursuit of excellence. HINTS & TIPS

How can I find out the code used to define my view?
Find out the definitions of your views using the SAS Datastep or the SQL Procedure.

How can I make a global change to all the blank values to the actual correct value within a set of variables?
Find out about available datasets, assigned libraries, filenames within the current SAS session and then use them to make a global change to selected variables. EVENTS

SAS Information Delivery Briefing - Marlow, 25 September
Information overload is a serious issue both for information consumers and the IT professionals who face constantly expanding business horizons. The challenge is to unlock your corporate data: to find and distribute information to the right people in the right place at the right time. At this special briefing, business and IT managers will hear about the latest approaches to tackling information overload - both theory and reality. This includes the SAS Information Delivery Portal, SAS data enquiries and ERP exploitation.

SAS User Forum 2003
London, 15 October
Cumbria, 28 October
The annual SAS User Forum provides the perfect opportunity to hear current news from the world of SAS - hear about the latest SAS technology developments, exchange best practices with other users and learn how they are using SAS software. Our web site now offers you the chance to apply to present your SAS experiences, influence the content of this year's forum and register to attend (receiving a 50% discount on the full delegate fee).

Full SAS UK Events Listing DID YOU KNOW?...

The Weird and Wonderful uses of SAS
Every now and then we hear about the non-traditional and interesting ways in which SAS is being used around the world. Over the years SAS software has helped to:

• Ensure the quality of cranberry sauce for holiday meals
• Determine the effects of dieting on middle-aged women
• Manage selective breeding programs for dogs that guide the visually impaired
• Preserve Australia's Great Barrier Reef, manatees and sea turtles in Florida and albatross in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica
• Optimise the Olympic training program for a world-class swimmer
• Match organ donors with the most compatible recipients