At the recent SAS Executive Forum in Sydney (#SASforum) we heard from a number of SAS customers as they shared their personal insights and experiences gained from using SAS technology across a number of industries.
SAS outlined their approach to the Internet of Things (IoT), using analytics to achieve meaningful and measurable results, while a panel of business executives shared their thoughts on using data and analytics to achieve business success.
Chris Riddell (@chrisriddell) kicked the day off with his entertaining presentation on the digital future. I saw him present this content earlier in the year at the Gartner Conference and it was just as entertaining the second time round.
Analytics of Things (AoT)
Following Chris was a keynote from Jim Davis, SAS Chief Marketing Officer. Jim outlined SAS’s response to the information demands generated by the Internet of Things – he referred to this as the Analytics of Things (AoT).
Jim outlined how SAS is combining their heritage of R&D investment in developing leading analytics and visualisation software with some major trends in the data arena – Hadoop, data streaming and in-memory, distributed processing.
Customer Highlights
- Barry Sandison from Australia’s Department of Human Services outlined the use of big data concepts to deal with the masses of data created by eGovernment and social media in order to better understand their customers and deliver improved, more targeted, prevention-focused social services. Very relevant to what New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development is also working towards.
- Eddie Moore from Football NSW gave a great presentation on the value of using analytics to support their goals across marketing, sales, finance and operations. Eddie’s presentation provided a glimpse of how a small organisation with limited resources uses visual analytics to achieve fantastic value and outcomes.
- Nick Reed, Group Head of Risk Infrastructure at ANZ, outlined the use of enterprise analytics as a strategic asset. His topic headings were Strategy, Data, Process, People, Technology, and Governance and BAU – uncannily similar to Stellar’s own 7 Essentials of BI Success. Nick’s session outlined many of the same successful outcomes we have experienced when applying our framework.
Closing Panel
As with many conferences there was a closing panel discussion, but it’s not often that an analytics pioneer and CEO of a leading software vendor will participate. However at this forum Dr Jim Goodnight was present and provided excellent input.
The SAS Executive Forum is a global event and provided a great opportunity for partners and customers from across Australia and New Zealand to hear first-hand the many successes that SAS’s customers have achieved through the application of analytics.
Hope to see you at next year’s event.
