End-of-life status for Adobe Flash – What does it mean for SAS users?

Demystifying SAS platform administration and why its important for you

SAS platform administration is not the first thing that comes to your mind when talking about SAS analytics. But it should be.

While SAS analytics holds immense value for businesses, what it can do and how efficiently it does depends on the quality of administration services. Yet, a lot of organisations don’t quite realise just how important platform administration is.

In the following post, I’ll be highlighting the misunderstanding that exists around the idea of SAS platform administration.

What is SAS platform administration?

To put it in the simplest terms possible, SAS platform administration acclimatises your SAS platform into the overall IT infrastructure. People in this position often act as the bridge between the SAS platform, IT department and business users.

Platform administration refers to the installation and maintenance of the platform and ensures that it is working in sync with the IT infrastructure.

SAS administration covers a wide range of responsibilities that include testing and upgrading the platform, evaluating the software for fixes, finding disk space for permanent data, analysing results and creating documentation for the platform.

Why should it matter to business users?

Platform administration offers several benefits that affect the quality of findings. Here are just some of the advantages.

Optimising the platform

SAS platform administration is necessary because it ensures that the platform is well-optimised, making sure that issues don’t clog data collection and analysis. When administration services are not properly done, it leads to several problems that compromise the quality of findings and hurts processes.

When platform administration services are properly rendered, it leads to several business benefits, like lower operating costs, more efficient data analysis and more relevant, actionable insights.
SAS platform administrators are responsible for the overall health of the platform because they are expected to fulfil a variety of maintenance services. Without a platform administrator, it would be difficult to keep the platform in optimum condition to generate insights that would be useful to business operations.

Maintaining the platform is challenging

SAS platforms have an incredibly complex backend. While many organisations have their own IT team to maintain infrastructure, administrating a SAS platform can be a challenging endeavour without any training or experience.

An example is the use of logs. SAS generates plenty of logs, there are programming logs, remote service logs, object spawner logs, metadata server logs, pooled workspace logs and SAS stored process logs. These logs provide plenty of information on the current status of the platform.

Without the logs, it would be impossible to optimise the platform to keep business insights sharp and relevant. Knowing where the logs are, how to read the information, and how to put it to good use is a crucial part of the administration process.

SAS platform administration ensures that you can maximise the ROI of your analytics investment.

Furthermore, when SAS platform administration is conducted properly, it ensures that data is well-maintained and taken care of. This is because one of the duties of a SAS platform administrator is to generate and keep data backups. Additionally, if your IT team runs into a problem with the SAS platform, the first person they can turn to is the platform administrator, making it easier to resolve problems in quick time.

Get started with SAS administration

Given the importance of SAS administration, finding the right person who can help optimise the platform is very important. The ideal administrator is someone who not only understands the SAS platform but also someone with business knowledge and an understanding of how the organisation works.

It is important to work with administrators who not only have a lot of experience administrating SAS platforms but also understand how your businesses works. This makes it easier for the administrator to finetune the platform to meet your objectives.

Selerity has a team of administrators more than capable of providing the SAS platform administration services you.

The benefits of using big data analytics software

Big data analytics refers to the strategy of analysing large volumes of data or ‘big data’. This big data is gathered from a wide variety of sources, including social networks, videos, digital images, sensors, and sales transaction records. There’s one clear notion that differentiates big data analytics from other forms of analytics: the volume, scale, and diversity of the data being analyzed. Big data analytics software analyses all this data to uncover patterns and connections that might otherwise be invisible.

This process will provide valuable insights that assist in bettering an organisation’s products and services. Big data analytics software helps organisations harness their data and use it to identify new opportunities. That, in turn, leads to smarter business moves, more seamless operations, higher profits, happier customers, and a much needed competitive edge.

Here are a few benefits of leveraging big data analytics software.

Traditional methods of data analysis just won’t make the cut anymore

To analyse such a large volume of data, big data analytics software utilise specialised software tools and applications that cover a range of data analytics operations – from predictive analytics to data mining to text mining to forecasting, and data optimisation.

Collectively, these processes are separate but highly integrated functions of high-performance analytics. Using big data tools and software enables an organisation to process extremely large volumes of data that a business has collected over time. This can then be used to determine which data is relevant and can be analysed to drive better business decisions in the future.

For most organizations, big data analysis is a challenge. Considering the sheer volume of data and the different formats of the data that is collected across an entire organisation and the many different ways different types of data can be combined, contrasted, and analysed to find patterns and other useful business information.

The first challenge is in breaking down data silos to access all data an organization stores in different places and often in different systems. A second challenge is in creating platforms that can pull in unstructured data as easily as structured data. This massive volume of data is typically so large that it’s absolutely difficult to process using traditional database and software methods. It would account for tediously long and laborious hours of sorting out information and then deciphering the information to leverage.

Naturally, this would take way too long and your competitors would have run laps around you while you were still busy tying up your shoelaces.

Gaining in-depth customer insights using big data analytics software

Every time customers click on a digital ad, write a review, “like” a product, browse your website, contact your call centre, place items in a cart, and make or walk away from a purchase, they are generating interaction data. Along the way, companies like yours are collecting an unprecedented amount of customer data. All of it can be enriched with all types of publicly available data and then analysed.

These types of customer data make up a vast percentage of big data that’s contributing to the 2.5 quintillion bytes of data being created by consumers and enterprises every day. Armed with the right big data analytics software, you can analyze your customer data to generate valuable insights into each customer’s journey, such as patterns, trends, traits, and tendencies that will help you take informed steps to accelerate customer acquisition, prevent churn, and supercharge your business’s overall efficiency.

Having access to numerous metrics, for example, in the context of social media, such as likes, post reactions, post replies and more, allows a business to better understand the very nature of the interaction between their customer base and their content.

Detecting fraud using big data analytics software

In highly regulated sectors like financial, healthcare, insurance, retail, and social security, combating fraud is essential as there are a multitude of compliance, regulations, risk management measures, and monetary consequences to be dealt with. The proliferation of modern technology has produced more sophisticated fraud techniques, but technology advancements have also enabled smarter approaches to detect fraud.

Fraud data analytics play a crucial role in the early detection and monitoring of fraud. These data analytic techniques will help the organization to detect the possible instances of fraud and implement an effective fraud monitoring program to protect the organization. The result? Unprecedented savings.

Key takeaways

Today’s advances in big data analytics software allow researchers and data analysts to perform what our ancestors would call ‘miraculous’, From decoding human DNA in minutes and determining which gene is most likely to be responsible for certain diseases to which ads you are most likely to respond to on Facebook, organisations who are serious about achieving efficiency and optimizing revenue need to employ big data analytics software.

For more information on big data analytics software and how it can help your organization compete with the ‘big’ boys visit our site.

SAS services – 4 game-changing insights you can expect

With SAS software paving the way as one of the world’s leading analytics platforms, many organisations are experiencing unprecedented benefits from the data they are collating. From strengthening visibility into employee performance to product/service movement analytics to supporting anti-fraud/AML initiatives, SAS software has streamlined organisational analytics like never before. To complement this powerful analytics platform, many organisations, and the administrators within them, are turning to SAS services as a means of further optimising their analytics.

As a leading provider of SAS services, we’ve helped many of our clients using SAS software in a multitude of ways – from SAS installation services to SAS administration services to SAS hosting services (both SAS 9.4 and SAS Viya). Our team of experts builds on the already formidable SAS platform and helps organisations make the most of their analytics. Remember, having access to a powerful data and analytics platform is only the first step. You need to know how to use this data in a manner that can drive value. That’s where SAS services come into play.

In this blog, we run through 4 incredibly game-changing insights you can expect to experience by leveraging the right SAS services provider.

 

SAS services give insights into your organisation’s analytics

This probably seems obvious but one of the biggest benefits of using SAS services, especially ones like our SAS administration services, is that organisations will gain insights into all the data they are now privy too – thanks to their powerful SAS software. Having too much data without knowing how to use/view it can be as useless as not having it all.

By leveraging SAS services, an organisation would be able to connect the data insights they gain via their SAS analytics platform with experts who will be able to instruct them on the best ways to funnel and use these insights. SAS services and experts will be able to identify previously unnoticed trends within your data, which could potentially drive a lot of value to an organisation. The result? Organisations will get to understand their inner workings better than ever before!

 

Get to know your customers better

In today’s data-driven world, customers are aware of all the marketing noise that’s out there and no longer respond to generic messaging that they once may have responded to. The most successful organisations in today’s landscape are those who are able to reach customers in ways that matter and appeal to them the most. Using data to achieve this is one of the best ways to go about this.

To make sure you’re getting the right insights, however, you’ll need the help of expert SAS services and consultants, who’d be able to show you key customer behavioural trends that will shed light into the best ways of engaging them.

Does your customer make purchases every quarter? Is there a specific product/service type they prefer? Your data, if funnelled correctly, will help you identify all this and more – allowing you to focus on specific groups while tailoring your messaging accordingly.

 

Fraud prevention via SAS services

Unfortunately, the more data-driven we’ve become as a society, the more vulnerable we are to external and criminal threats. Countless organisations all around the world have fallen victim to activities with criminal intent, resulting in losses reaching millions of dollars. Consequently, to combat these threats, many organisations spend an equivalent amount in adopting preventative technologies and measures. From infrastructure costs to testing and development, fraud prevention systems can be very expensive.

Fortunately, by using all that data and information flowing into your SAS environment, you’ll be able to identify suspicious activity as it is happening in real-time and prioritise your investigations accordingly. Gone are the days where you need to be reactive as opposed to proactive. Expert SAS services and consultants will provide you with the necessary direction/insights you need to successfully achieve this.

 

Analytics-driven insights for successful decision-making

With businesses operating in both versatile and volatile environments, the value of good decision-making cannot be overstated. Many organisations are aware of the value of data-backed decisions but one thing we see quite often is that, often times, the wrong data is used. For businesses that use SAS software, SAS services can be incredibly useful in helping them segment their customers/clients into specific groups, identify expenses and where they’re making losses, and foreseeing how future trends may play out.

Collectively, these insights can help business leaders make the right decisions that deliver the most value?

 

If you would like to know more about our SAS services, our company and our work with SAS, in addition to how you can leverage our SAS administration, installation, and hosting services, feel free to reach out to us or stay tuned to this feed.

SAS Administration Services – The Core Benefits

As a global analytics provider to firms and organisations all around the world, SAS software is transforming how organisations operate and do business. With an abundance of applications to choose from, organisations have a plethora of options to choose from and leverage in their analytics processes. While this is undeniably a positive thing, one of the major downsides is that the presence of so many options means that organisations now need to expand their personnel and financial bandwidth to make sure they are leveraging these insights appropriately. Organisations, both large and small in scale, will increasingly struggle to handle the increasing volumes of data – especially data leveraged through SAS software – which is why SAS administration services are so valuable.

So, why are SAS administration services so important? As the analytics space has become increasingly complex and as unprecedented amounts of data are now being made available to organisations from all parts of the world, leveraging this data the right way is becoming equally important. Failing to leverage this data appropriately and efficiently could result in organisations wasting significant amounts of time and resources – which would undoubtedly hurt the organisation’s analytics ROI in the long-term.

Organisations have two options to alleviate this. On one front, they could opt to employ a team of full-time, in-house SAS experts who are dedicated to ensuring that the SAS environments they are responsible for are installed, maintained, and regularly updated when required. The second option businesses have is to opt for consultants who have dedicated teams focused on providing various organisations with these same services. Here at Selerity, our team has provided multiple organisations with seamless SAS administration services – allowing them to leverage their analytics and insights in a manner best suited to enhance their operations.

 

What are the core benefits of Selerity’s SAS administration services?  

The most obvious benefit of our SAS administration services is that they instantly alleviate the burden of businesses having to focus on setting up, managing, and monitoring their SAS environments accurately and efficiently. One thing that happens quite regularly with strained in-house SAS administrators is that the systems are sometimes set up incorrectly, which results in these organisations not gaining access to the best insights. With our expert SAS administration services in place, organisations can rest assured knowing that their entire analytics environment is in the safe hands of certified service providers. Remember, in our fast-paced world of modern business, convenience and reduced burdens are priceless.

On the topic of prices and costing, our SAS administration services are actually available to our clients at just a fraction of the cost of having a full-time, in-house administrator – keep in mind that this is not including any additional in-house support staff who may be required to support an in-house administrator. What does this mean? Organisations can leverage the most up-to-date services and expertise without the added burden of having to manage and maintain full-time personnel – leverage the best and most insightful organisational analytics with ease.

 

Our three core SAS administration services

Selerity’s SAS administration services are uniquely catered to serving the various needs of organisations. Our service offering is divided into three specific segments – SAS Administration – Basic, SAS Administration – Standard, and SAS Administration – Custom. The illustration below specifies this categorisation of services in detail.

Our services have been uniquely categorised to fit our clients’ requirements. While the Basic and Standard packages are among our most sought after, we recognise the unique needs and specifications many business, both large and small, may have, which is why we offer a Custom service offering. Our administration services vary from single server coverage in the Basic offering to covering a 3-Tier environment in the Standard offering to potentially covering multiple servers in a Custom setup.

Our administration services include monthly and quarterly SAS environment maintenance conducted by our team, regular SAS Hot Fixes, and access to an online SAS environment performance dashboard.

Having operated in the analytics space as a SAS Silver partner for a decade and by leveraging the countless years of shared SAS experience among our team members, we have strengthed our position as a strategic SAS administration services provider both here in Australia and abroad. Our services are constantly being leveraged by many organisations and we are proud to say that through our services and our role as a Silver partner, we have enabled several of our clients to benefit from significant savings – in certain instances ranging in the millions of dollars.

If you would like to know more about our SAS administration services, our company and our work with SAS, in addition to how you can leverage our other SAS installation and hosting services, feel free to reach out to us, or stay tuned to this feed.

How Selerity has helped Bupa save in excess of $150 million dollars

For Rob Ashmore, Information Delivery Manager at Bupa Australia, being able to properly manage and analyse data is crucial for controlling Bupa’s claims line.

“Our SAS software system allows us to identify aberrant behaviours, such as over servicing, over claiming and fraud, which in turn allows us a greater degree of control over what we pay out,” says Rob.

“We recoup money by looking for inappropriate payments, claims leakages, fraud, provider over servicing… basically any part of any claim that we have already paid or are due to pay that could be better spent.

“Being able to control our claims line with our SAS system has not only enabled us to reduce the price of premiums for our customers, ensuring they get a better deal with hospitals and pay less of a gap…

… it has also played a major part in enabling our operational team to save Bupa in excess of $150 million dollars since 2009.”

“But we couldn’t have done this without the expertise and experience of Michael Dixon and his team at Selerity.”

A 20:1 Return on Investment

In 2009 Bupa wanted to help reduce the price of premiums for their customers by using SAS software to control their claims line. So Rob Ashmore approached Michael Dixon and asked him to come on board as a full-time consultant.

Michael spent the next 18 months consulting full-time within Bupa, setting up the correct architecture for their SAS system, developing their datamarts and building a data warehouse for holding their claims-related information.

“Michael helped us plan at fundamental stage, before we installed our SAS system,” says Rob. “He set a fundamental direction for our software, ensuring that our SAS system had longevity, scalability and flexibility.

“He also worked as an intrinsic part of our small team and brought superb knowledge of SAS processes, which allowed us to control our SAS system from within the business side of Bupa, rather than just the IT department having control.”

“The return on investment of this original engagement has been immense — at least twenty-to-one. Michael’s whole approach has enabled our operational teams use SAS software to recoup in excess of $150 million dollars…and that’s a conservative estimate!”

A more effective and more scalable database

Bupa already had the SAS system up and running for a while but realised they weren’t really making the best use of it. They simply weren’t populating their own datamarts in a way that made it useful for the end user.

“We called Michael and the team from Selerity in again, this time to help us restructure our databases to make it more effective, more scalable, and ensure it performed better for our needs,” says Rob.

“The team at Selerity also designed our system so that our data was loaded on a daily basis, rather than on a monthly basis. This provided us with near real time data that we could respond to immediately, allowing us to make better informed decisions and quickly identify and respond to any aberrant behaviours.”

Better, faster and cheaper SAS provisioning

The real return on investment for Bupa is that they only have to employ a small team to manage their datamarts and the applications which they use to perform analysis.

“A couple of years ago a staff member who used to maintain our SAS server left the company, which meant we no longer had a specialist in that area. Without Selerity we would have had to employ two people for this role, both a SAS platform admin specialist and SAS application programmer. We tried to find someone who was capable of performing both roles, but we were without success…it was hard to find one person who had that skill set.

“We decided to outsource our SAS admin provisioning to Selerity because, quite frankly, they can do it better, faster and cheaper than we can. It costs a lot to train and retain internally, and keeping on top of SAS knowledge needs is also extremely difficult.”

For the past two years Selerity has been engaged as a service provider on a permanent basis to manage Bupa’s SAS system for them.

Selerity’s service provisioning for Bupa encompasses:

• Installing any updates and SAS version upgrades
• Understanding, configuring and implementing SAS version upgrades from A-Z
• In-house knowledge transfer to senior SAS specialist in the Bupa team
• Explaining admin functions in Bupa’s SAS system and how to do day-to-day admin
• Testing to make sure any installation is installed successful and working smoothly

“Now that Selerity are maintaining our SAS system for us we don’t have to worry anymore about what happens when internal staff go on leave, are away sick or are headhunted elsewhere. We’re not paying super, sick leave or annual leave, and Selerity perform the same admin function with more skill and expertise (and at a fraction of the cost!) of employing in-house staff!”

Forward thinking and proactive advice

“The team at Selerity are very proactive, really going above and beyond their job description,” says Rob. “Michael also points out new features of our SAS platform which we weren’t currently aware of or using as well as SAS features that are redundant to our purpose.

“Even though we don’t pay them to act as advisors on SAS strategy, they’ve always very good at advising on other matters relating to SAS. They’ve been incredibly helpful in a number of ways, but especially in giving us advice on how to use our SAS software to get to the right solution, more quickly, whilst achieving the correct result.

“The entire team’s knowledge of new developments in SAS software is second to none and they point us at modules, explain new parts of SAS, and show us how to optimise our use of SAS.

“Selerity have enabled us to really maximise the return on investment in our SAS system…something we would never have been able to do without them.”

A very good understanding of our business and an excellent business model

“The Selerity team also have a very good understanding of our business,” says Rob. “My team at Bupa all have IT capabilities but we work within the business side of Bupa. We sit amongst operational staff, report to same staff—we are not just part of the IT environment…we really understand the business side, which makes us incredibly effective.

“Selerity work closely with our team so they understand we need to focus more on the business than on our SAS system, so what they build for us is far easier for operational people to use, rather than just IT people.

“Selerity have a really really good business model themselves, because not only do they install SAS systems, but they also provide SAS admin and hosting services at the fraction of the cost of what it would cost to employ somebody in-house.

“Without Selerity we would have greatly increased staff costs and our SAS system administration would occupy lot more of my time.”

Market leaders in depth and breadth of SAS knowledge and experience

For Bupa, the ongoing relationship with Selerity has been absolutely crucial in controlling Bupa’s claims line, saving them increasing amounts of money each year.

“Selerity have ensured our SAS software is flexible, reliable and accurate, saving us and our customers in excess of $150 million dollars over 7 years.

“Selerity not only have provided Bupa with a return on investment of at least 20:1…

…they have also delivered peace of mind.”

“We went to Selerity with confidence because they are the market leaders in terms of depth and breadth of SAS knowledge and experience.

“We really do consider Selerity to be the best in the business.”

8 Reasons to Consider Outsourcing Your SAS Administration

Many people believe when they buy a SAS system they can get the user to also be the administrator, however there are different and multiple skill sets required for SAS administration.

Let’s take a look at some of compelling reasons why outsourcing your SAS System can help deliver the return on investment you’re looking for.

1. Variety of skill sets

Even our experienced Selerity SAS specialists need to work together as a team because administering SAS systems requires a variety of skill sets. It is virtually impossible to find a single employee with the same breadth and depth of knowledge as our team of SAS specialists, or one who is as aware of the latest developments in SAS technology.

The risk of an internal hire is that they can quickly become an out of date liability. And then your SAS system just doesn’t deliver.

2. Cost

If you have been lucky enough to find a highly skilled internal SAS specialist, they will certainly be very expensive to retain and likely to be promptly headhunted by much larger corporations!

A full-time employee with SAS admin skills can easily command upwards of $100,000 (plus ongoing costs of super, annual leave, etc) whereas outsourcing your SAS admin costs less than half that amount for just a small ongoing monthly fee.

Outsourcing your SAS admin also ensures all of your operating costs are fixed and budgetable every month.

3. Automation and consistency

A lot of internal SAS administrators do things very manually, which takes time and costs money.

At Selerity all we do is SAS, so we have automated much of the administration processes, ensuring consistency and that all processes are in place, with nothing forgotten or missed. This makes the admin process faster and more secure.

4. Reducing cost of failure

Let’s be honest. Most companies are inherently risk adverse and no SAS administrator wants to put their career on the line for the sake of trying new things.

Once that cost of failure is removed by outsourcing your SAS admin we can can trial new systems for you with the only risk being a couple of months of admin fees.

Outsourcing your SAS admin allows you to test the limits of your SAS system and find evidence for business cases. It gives you the freedom to try innovative, creative ways of getting more bang for your buck.

5. 24/7 access to your SAS system

Even if you employ the best SAS admin person in the world there are times they are going to be sick, away on holidays, potentially taking maternity/paternity or carer’s leave and even eventually headhunted to brighter, better pastures.

It’s actually quite a scary proposition to rely on just one person to maintain the huge investment that is your SAS system.

Outsourcing your SAS admin to a team of SAS specialists ensures you can always access your data and there is always someone on hand 24/7 who understands your system, ensuring it is up-to-date, secure and delivering the data you need.

6. Proactive prevention of problems

Because we are dealing with so many different client’s SAS systems every day we can prevent, identify and fix many problems in your system before you’re even aware they exist.

Unlike an internal SAS admin, our team of specialists are exposed to a huge variety of different SAS environments so if you have a potential problem it’s very likely we’ve seen it before…and fixed it before.

7. Cloud-based collaboration and remote access

Wherever you are in the world an outsourced SAS admin team can maintain your SAS system securely via the cloud.

At Selerity SAS our own cloud-based software facilitates our teams being able to work together and collaborate together.

8. Security

Most SAS admins don’t have the time to keep current with the skills required to do maintenance and this is when SAS systems get hacked. Either the security has not been set up properly or there are holes in the system because updates have been missed.

An outsourced team of SAS specialists will have the experience and skill set to proactively prevent any security issues. And you won’t have to worry about remembering when updates are due.

In the right hands your SAS system can provide you with one of your most powerful business tools…protection and understanding of your data. However, to get the best results, you need a SAS admin team who are focused on (and highly experienced in) getting the greatest return on investment for you from your SAS data.

Outsourcing your SAS admin saves you time and money, keeps your data secure and your system up to date, ensuring your SAS system really delivers. Your IT department will also thank you because, in reality, SAS users want to play with data, not administer.

Once you get the right team of SAS specialists, all the stress of managing an internal person goes away. You have a skilled team of professionals at your disposal – a team who are constantly upskilling as they learn from multiple accounts.

A good SAS admin team will scale up with you. And because they are an outsourced partner you are in control and can terminate the contract at any stage.