Key Happenings at support.sas.com

New Forum Focuses on SAS Web Report Studio

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:11:19 -0500

We launched another forum on Friday afternoon! The Web Report Studio forum was created to establish a community of users that can share information, questions, and ideas about SAS Web Report Studio. While watching the discussions in our existing forums, I noticed that Web Report Studio questions were being asked in many of our forums. When the Web Report Studio forum launched, I searched for some of the more active posts and moved them to the new forum. If you haven't visited it yet, take a look. The forum already contains some nice discussions.

If you are a Web Report Studio user, you may also be interested in some of these resources:

RSS feed for the forum

Documentation page for Web Report Studio

Papers that focus on Web Report Studio

Samples that are valid for use with Web Report Studio

As always, we hope that you will use this forum to share experiences, post questions and suggestions, offer solutions, and interact with other SAS customers. Remember that you can follow the conversation in e-mail by setting a watch or in an RSS feed by subscribing to items that interest you. Instructions for both of these tasks are provided in Watching a forum.

Getting Started with SAS Enterprise Miner

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:08:43 -0500

Q: One site visitor added this comment to his feedback form:

I am trying to find the answer to a simple question about getting started with Enterprise Miner 6.1.

A: Visit the product page for SAS Enterprise Miner.

What will you find on the product page?
This visitor specifically asked for a tutorial. We don't have one listed for Enterprise Miner. However, the product page does have some good information that may be helpful. The following lists a few of those resources.

Getting Started with SAS Enterprise Miner (This book addresses release 5.3, but it will be helpful with 6.1 until the updated book is released.)

What's New in SAS Enterprise Miner 6.1.

Available training for SAS Enterprise Miner

SAS Data Mining and Text Mining forum. Use this forum to exchange information with others users and learn from their experience.

I hope these suggestions help you get started with SAS Enterprise Miner.

Advances in Searching

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:12:00 -0400

UPDATE:
The advanced search functionality is now production on support.sas.com. It is available at support.sas.com/search. You can also access it by selecting the search button when the search field is empty. Links to advanced search will start to appear on the site over the next few days. The first link is now available as shown below.

Thanks for your comments. Based on your feedback, the Search and Reset buttons have switched locations on the page. If you have additional comments, please send them to us or post them here.
--- end of update ---

I have written about the search functionality on support.sas.com before and you have provided feedback about what you need from the search tool. If you missed those conversations, you may want to take a minute to review other posts about searching.

Based on your comments and site usage evaluations, there is no mistaking the importance of searching. Given that, we have a team of dedicated people looking at reported issues and potential search improvements. The team is proud to announce our first major update to search: Advanced Search. Below is a screen shot of the new search page.

The Advanced Search is available today on support.sas.com. However, we have not made it a production feature yet because we are still testing and gathering feedback. Today, I am offering you early access to the search features. All I ask in return is that you let us know what you like and what you don't like.

Give it a try
While we are polishing the last few rough edges, I invite you to visit support.sas.com/search/advanced.html and kick the tires on these features.

Continue reading "Advances in Searching"

The man behind the curtain: SAS Deployment Wizard

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:18:25 -0400

More questions answered:
Q: I'm looking for a simple install guide for 9.2
A: I couldn't answer the question about why SAS 9.2 has different installation documentation, so I enlisted the help of Fred Perry who is a major contributor of content to the Install Center.

How do I find my usual installation documentation?
In SAS 9.2, we introduced the SAS Deployment Wizard to replace the SAS Software Navigator. The SAS Deployment Wizard is a far more robust tool to drive the deployment of your software. Here are some improvements you may notice:

The SAS Deployment Wizard allows a quiet or silent installation which was difficult to perform with the SAS Software Navigator.

The SAS Deployment Wizard prompts you for installation and configuration information at the beginning of your deployment, so you provide the information only once and then allow installation to continue unattended.

The SAS Deployment Wizard also replaces the SAS Configuration Wizard so you have the option to install SAS and run the configuration at the same time or perform them separately.

Instead of one or two generic paths through the deployment tool, the SAS Deployment Wizard supports a path that is tailored for your individual software order. With such a big change in the way SAS software is deployed, the documentation path for SAS 9.2 has also been updated.

Your installation experience begins with a Software Order E-mail that each customer receives. This customized starting point explains exactly what you need to do to install your software. It also includes a list of the other documents you might need and how to find those documents.

For Windows and UNIX users, your installation path continues with SAS QuickStart Guides. Then you will move through the SAS Deployment Wizard and find targeted explanations in its Help dialogs.

For z/OS users, your Software Order E-mail directs you to a set of installation instructions specific to your type of deployment.

For deployment on any of these hosts, you will finish with the configuration information available for the products in your software order.

Install Center continues to offer valuable documentation, the same way it did in releases of SAS software prior to SAS 9.2. Your documentation path describes when you need to visit Install Center to retrieve that documentation.

Now that the deployment path is more personalized, you may notice fewer documents in the "Installation Instructions" section of Install Center. That change is part of our effort to produce a less generic, more efficient deployment experience for you. Users have told us that, from the Software Order E-mail to the completion of any configuration steps, deployment of SAS software is faster than ever before. We hope these improvements provide an easier deployment experience for you as well.

Answering the questions from the feedback forms

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:55:01 -0400

We have recently added feedback forms and short surveys on some pages on support.sas.com. We don't ask for your e-mail address or require you to log in to the site. That means that all of the comments are anonymous. We think the ease of commenting will increase the amount of good feedback we receive. It seems to be working.

I have found a downside. Some of the comments express frustration about content that can't be found. If only I could contact the person and offer some help. I can't do that, but a girl with a blog can provide answers as blog posts. The comments are usually short, so I have to guess at the detailed meaning. May I get a few right!

Here's my first attempt.

Comment: I just wanted some common sample programs for statistical analysis.
Response: When looking for statistical analysis samples, bookmark these links:

Samples tagged as being about analytics.

Examples that investigate a variety of analytical techniques using SAS Software.

If these links don't deliver, visit the Statistical Procedures discussion forum.

Get your graph questions answered

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:49:35 -0400

We launched a new discussion forum at the end of August. The SAS/GRAPH and ODS Graphics forum provides a place to discuss the visual representation of data, to share your questions, suggestions, experiences, and pains regarding graphics. Join the discussion about SAS graphics.

We all love to see our data represented in fancy graphs and we love the fact that these cool visual displays can get so much attention for our data. I bet that almost every report you generate includes at least one graphic. And, I bet that you are always looking for ways to pump up the visual elements included in your reports. SAS/GRAPH software and ODS Graphics can help you in that effort. Review the list of resources below.

SAS/GRAPH and ODS Graphics forum

SAS/GRAPH samples gallery

Data Visualization focus area

Getting Started with ODS Statistical Graphics in SAS 9.2 paper

SAS/GRAPH product page

Update, Nov 6:
This ondemand Webinar presented by Bob Rodriguez is a companion to the Getting Started with ODS Statistical Graphics paper referenced above. Watch the Webinar now.
[end update]

Here's one example that you can find in the samples gallery. Enjoy!

The following graph was produced using PROC SGRENDER. It is a Monthly Stock Price and Volume Graph [View the code in a new window]

A beautiful morning in Vermont

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:02:07 -0400

I'm in Burlington, VT for NESUG 09. I've never been here, so I got up early this morning to go for a short run to clear my head for a day on the demo floor and to get a look around. I found my way to Battery Park and thought the views were nice. Then I turned around to head to the lake front. The beauty of the morning made me stop and walk to take it all in. The pink and orange of the sunrise was glowing on the mountains across Lake Champlain. Wow. I resisted the temptation to sit in one of the swings along the lake and just watch the morning unfold. With that kind of inspiration, I'm ready for the day and looking forward to meeting some of you.
If you are at NESUG, I have two suggestions for you.

Go for a walk down by the lake, early in the morning if you can.

Come by the demo room and visit the SAS staff, partners, and poster presenters.

I have two demos while at NESUG. One will focus on ways to network, collaborate and influence SAS and other SAS users from support.sas.com. The other will focus on new features recently launched or coming soon to support.sas.com.
If you aren't a NESUG, you won't be left out. You can get this information at other regional users group meetings or by following this blog over the next few days.

One last note: If you are on Twitter, you can keep up with happenings at the conference by following the #NESUG09 hashtag.

Dr. Goodnight and SAS in the news

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:22:10 -0400

I wanted to take a minute to share these two pieces of media that I discovered this week. In a video interview with Bloomberg's Bernard Lo, Dr. Goodnight, CEO of SAS, talks about the emerging Asian market and about how SAS does business in Asia. (Note: I couldn't find an easy way to share the Bloomberg video. To locate it, click on the link I provided above and look for this title "SAS's Goodnight Sees Asian Market Becoming More Dominant.")

The other piece, an article on investors.com titled Good Days for Software CEO Jim Goodnight, talks about ways that SAS is unique as a company. This article highlights the fact that Goodnight, and therefore SAS, believes in listening to the people who use our software -- that's you! The article mentions the SASware Ballot. If you missed the 2009 ballot results, you can find them in the Community section of support.sas.com.

New features for authors and fans of SAS Publishing!

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:08:00 -0400

Contributed by Kirsten Hamstra, SAS Publishing

Changes are happening at SAS Publishing with several new features being rolled out this month. The first and largest new feature focuses on our authors.

Currently, most SAS Publishing titles have a corresponding companion page that features additional information about the book, including author background, recent updates and sample code. Our authors are subject matter experts, and many have published several titles with us. The author pages bring the attention back to them and their expertise. The pages feature several different areas for customers to interact and learn about SAS Publishing authors including links to their titles, news, events, podcasts and social media links to their pages on Twitter, Facebook or other channels.

To learn more about your favorite author, visit: Author Pages on support.sas.com.

Another new feature that works together with author pages allows customers to be notified when a new book is available. The Coming Soon page lists all upcoming SAS Publishing titles, anticipated publication date and gives visitors the option to receive an email when the book is available for purchase.

Finally, the SAS Publishing Bookstore has added a new section called Conversations. As SAS Publishing continues to participate in several social media channels, we want to inform our customers how and where they can find us online. There are currently links to our pages on Facebook and Twitter with more to be added soon!

SAS Using SAS for Reporting

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:55:08 -0400

SAS customers often ask me "How do you use SAS?" My use of SAS is very limited these days, but my co-workers do some amazing things every day. We at SAS use SAS software to accomplish all sorts of business tasks and some purely entertaining ones too. (I'm sure you've seen the blackjack and Sudoku programs at SAS Global Forum.) No matter what programs and tools we create using SAS software, we are encouraged to share our feedback with developers and testers.

I have decided to highlight some our uses for you. You will find them under the SAS Using SAS category at the right. My first interview was with Emily Wallace, Senior Director of the SAS Knowledge Management Center. I asked Emily if she could tell me what kinds of applications her organization writes using SAS software. The answer: "We use SAS for everything!" Lucky for this blog post, she offered some great details. She provided so much interesting information that I have struggled to find things to cut! The following is what I kept from our interview for this post.

Reports are delivered to internal portals
The Knowledge Management Center manages three internal reporting portals that provide information of varying details to different levels of management and staff. Each morning after the corporate warehouse data is refreshed, batch jobs run and construct all the reports in each portal. These programs run on a variety of platforms (Microsoft Windows desktop, Windows server, UNIX, Linux, and z/OS) and use tried-and-true SAS elements and procedures, such as DATA steps, PROC SQL, PROC GCHART, PROC SORT and others. The generated reports are used daily to manage and influence sales and business decisions.
Continue reading "SAS Using SAS for Reporting"

Connect with SAS Publishing

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:02:00 -0400

SAS Publishing wants to get closer to the people who read, write, or dream of writing a SAS Press book. You can find SAS Publishing products and contact information on support.sas.com in the Bookstore. SAS Publishing is reaching out to you in other locations so that we can get to know each other better. Join the conversation.

Become a fan of SAS Publishing on Facebook.
Follow @SASPublishing on Twitter.
Join Fans of SAS Books on LinkedIn.

Watch this space for more ways to connect with SAS and SAS Publishing.

The list of SAS bloggers is growing

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:16:07 -0400

The last time I visited blogs.sas.com, there were a handful of interesting blogs listed down the right side of the page. Over the last few weeks, I have seen and heard about new blogs coming online but it didn't really sink in. Then today, I visited blogs.sas to find a long and growing list of bloggers. The following highlights some of the new bloggers:

In Other Words (by Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Jim Davis)
Davis' initial posts offer insight into how to retain and motivate employees and how those efforts create an environment for innovation and loyalty. Read Davis' most recent post Loyalty insurance.

The Business Forecasting Deal
Michael Gilliland is a product marketing manager at SAS who focuses on business forecasting. Gilliland's blog offers practical solutions for common mistakes and bad practices. He is currently blogging about interesting activity at F2009. Visit Gilliland's forecasting blog.

In the Final Analysis (by executive Vice President, EMEA and Asia Pacific, SAS, Mikeal Hagstroem)
Hagstroem is interested in optimizing business performance and uses his blog to discuss issues facing organizations today. Visit the blog for a global view into business.

You can access all blogs by SAS employees at visiting blogs.sas.com. And don't forget the blogs written by SAS users. I'm sure that we don't have a comprehensive list, but Alison Bolen does her best to keep a current list of blogs by SAS users.

What you don't see is right in front of you

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:15:34 -0400

SAS campus has this great art installation titled Frightened Deer by Richard Rothschild. (That's it in the picture below.) As you can see, this is a large art installation. I run or drive by these deer almost every day. Most days I am oblivious to their existence, but some mornings, I find myself pulling up short and sucking in my breath startled by what is about to attack me. How can I forget that these deer are there? It's easy really. They are a part of the background of my life.

Sometimes the things we are the most blind to are the things that we look at everyday. I haven't found a trick that helps me open my eyes and mind and take in my everyday surroundings. But I'm trying.

What fades into the background on support.sas.com

My team monitors the comments that come from visitors to the Website and actively solicits input from you. From your comments, I have created a list of support.sas.com elements that have faded into the background for many site visitors. The remainder of this post will introduce you to a few of the features that you might be missing.
Continue reading "What you don't see is right in front of you"

New forum addresses text and data mining

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:55:12 -0400

We're on a roll with discussion forums. We launched yet another customer-requested forum this week; it focuses on data mining and text mining. Mining is all about digging through vast amounts of data to find trends that enable creating predictive and descriptive models. The SAS Data Mining and Text Mining forum will be most helpful to those who have SAS Enterprise Miner, SAS Text Miner, and SAS Credit Scoring. However, you don't have to have these products to explore large data sets. Note: If you are unfamiliar with the data and text mining offerings from SAS, review the material provided in the Products & Solutions section of the SAS Web site.

As always, we hope that you will use this forum to share experiences, post questions and suggestions, offer solutions, and interact with other SAS data miners. Remember that you can follow the conversation in e-mail by setting a watch or in an RSS feed by subscribing to items that interest you. Instructions for both of these tasks are provided in Watching a forum.

Blogging by SAS Users

nospam@example.com (Renee Harper) — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:19:01 -0400

I was reading Alison's Friday Fast Links post in the sascom voices blog and was amazed at the growing list of blogs by SAS users. If you are interested in what other SAS users are doing with SAS, be sure to check out the running list of blogs that Alison maintains.

You will also find user blogs in the Bloggers Corner on sasCommunity.org.

Note: If you have a blog that includes SAS tips, ideas, and musings, leave a comment so that you can be added to the list.