SUGI 24
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SUGI 24
SUGI 23 on the record
In
Nashville,
3000
Intelligent storage. Intelligent servers. Intelligent
clients. And 3,000 intelligent users were all on display
at the twenty-third annual SAS® Users Group
International conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
Attendees shared ideas and previewed the next generation of SAS software — which offers enhancements to
the data, application, and user interface capabilities of
SAS software and delivers enabling technologies that
make the process of information delivery increasingly
transparent to decision makers.
Conference chair Sally Goostrey of Pharmacia &
Upjohn delighted the Opening Session audience by
announcing changes in the conference. “Since so much
has changed since the last time we met in Nashville
(SUGI 15 in 1990), it’s not surprising that we’ve made
some changes to this year’s SUGI conference as well.
For example, the hands-on workshops feature
extended hours, they have more workstations, and you
won’t need a ticket to get in this year. In the Demo
Area, you’ll see Institute Technology Partners demoing
SAS software on their latest hardware. The Message
Center has been automated thanks to the efforts of
IBM. You’ll also find a new financial track in this year’s
paper schedule.”
Kathy Council, vice president of Publications for SAS
Institute, welcomed attendees to the country music
capital of the world. “To me, country music is fun. It
gets you pumped up and excited. All of us at SAS
users
from
38
countries
Institute hope this conference will have the same
impact on you.” She then introduced the latest version
of SAS software — “appropriately code named
Nashville Project in honor of its unveiling here.”
Just as core changes in Version 6 of SAS software
opened doors for entirely new uses of SAS software,
intelligent components within the Nashville Project
provide a stage for solving a wider range of problems
for a wider range of users. “Intelligent storage defines
Nashville Project’s ability to easily span a wide range of
data structures, to generate the crucial metalayer that
describes that data, and to store that data in the best
format for the user,” Council explained. “Intelligent
servers expand upon Version 6’s ability to provide
identical functionality, data, and logic transfer across
practically any platform. Intelligent clients refer
to the Institute’s ability to provide the right interface
whatever the business problem the user is
trying to solve.”
Applause greeted Council’s announcement that the
Nashville Project responds to long-standing user
requests such as longer variable names, longer data set
names and catalog entry names, and long character
variables. “Your needs and industry directions made it
clear that we needed to continue to expand our ability
to handle ever-increasing amounts of data to ensure
support in our key summarization and reporting
tools,” she added. “All of these enhancements
improve usability and, with the updated version of
SAS/ACCESS® software, allow greater transparency of
access to data. We couldn’t provide the transparent
access you wanted until we had long names in the rest
of the system, and we couldn’t consolidate on a single
view technology without updateable SQL views and
embedded LIBNAME definitions. We did all of this.
And adding long names meant redesigning the output
from every procedure. And we did that.”
get
in
SUGI 24
une
with
the
latest
SAS
®
innovations
Other innovations introduced at
Opening Session included:
●
The Output Delivery System (ODS) — a
comprehensive redesign and complete
rewrite of the procedure output mechanism.
ODS accepts raw data from all procedures,
applies formatting and style, and allows
output to be directed to a printer, HTML,
rich text files, PostScript, or data sets.
●
The Explorer interface, an easy-to-use
unified file manager and application
launching framework.
●
The ability to run multiple SAS/AF® applications at once without interfering with
each other.
●
Support for concatenation of libraries and
catalogs, as well as support for integrity
constraints.
●
●
Support for partial least squares analysis,
spatial prediction, alternative logistic
regression algorithms, and more.
Extensive online help and complete reference
documentation in HTML format.
SAS Institute President Jim Goodnight (left),
along with Institute developers, introduced
Version 7 of the SAS System.
Institute product managers offered on-stage demonstrations — and later held Presentation Theaters in the
software demonstration area — of the new technologies. Also taking the stage at the Opening Session
were the following customer presenters:
• Dave Gibson, manager, human resource systems
for Deere & Company, offered an overview of
HR Vision™ software and its impact at his company.
• Didier Lambert, worldwide EDP manager for Essilor,
demonstrated OLAP, MDDB, and HOLAP
technology.
• Clark Abrahams, senior VP, consumer credit policy
for NationsBank Corporation, shared examples of
customer relationship management applications.
• Tom Ianieri, senior developer for Quaker Chemical
Corporation, provided an overview of Enterprise
Reporter software applications at work in
his organization.
SUGI 24
Enterprise Computing Award presented in three categories
A system to unite worldwide financial data, a Web-based data warehouse and project management system for the Titan IV Missile System, and a data warehouse that takes university
student records on safari each earned SAS Institute’s 1998 Enterprise Computing Award —
presented by SAS Institute President Jim Goodnight during Opening Session.
C O M M E R C I A L A P P L I C AT I O N S :
Quaker Chemical Corporation
This year’s commercial applications winner is
Quaker Chemical Corporation. Quaker has developed
an enterprise-wide information delivery system which
provides worldwide financial, sales, and profitability
information to personnel from regional sales managers to senior corporate management. Incorporating
the full spectrum of SAS software capabilities,
Quaker Chemical is able to provide a fast, powerful,
highly flexible technology solution for its
worldwide organization.
Space Launch Systems project lead; Ken Robak,
director, Production Operation Planning; and Chuck
Rissmiller, production planning manager, Titan IV.
Accepting the Enterprise Computing Award for
Quaker Chemical were Rich Fagan, controller and
treasurer; Carman Pagano, senior systems design
specialist; and Andrew Causak, business analyst.
G O V E R N M E N T A P P L I C AT I O N S :
Lockheed Martin Astronautics
In government applications, this year’s winner is
Lockheed Martin for their WOW decision support
system application. The Astronautics Division of
Lockheed developed WOW as a powerful data warehouse with components used for project and resource
management, operations research, and decision
support. SAS software provides the back end which is
combined with the easy-to-access and use Web front
end to put the company’s data warehouse on the
desktop of all key personnel involved in their missioncritical production projects.
Accepting the Enterprise Computing Award for
Lockheed Martin Astronautics were Art Rerecich,
A C A D E M I C A P P L I C AT I O N S :
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas was honored for its SAFARI
data warehouse application, which supports student
admissions and financial aid and records information.
Currently, users in departments from agronomy to
human resources take advantage of the warehouse.
It provides users with the flexibility to analyze an
enormous amount of data on multiple levels and
dimensions — in real time.
Accepting the Enterprise Computing Award for
University of Arkansas were Akbar Golmirzaie, SAFARI
project developer, and Dr. Robert Zimmerman,
director of Computing Services.
SUGI 24
MILLIKEN EARNS 1998 USER
FEEDBACK AWARD
SAS Institute Technical Support Director Dave Brumitt
presented this year’s User Feedback Award to
Dr. George A. Milliken of Kansas State University.
Milliken’s feedback has reflected his concern with
having the appropriate tools to provide the best
possible analyses for complex designed experiments.
His influence has led to enhancements for the analysis
of mixed models with new and improved options in
PROC GLM and PROC MIXED. These enhancements
will be incorporated into Version 7 of SAS software.
He has also suggested necessary enhancements
for mixed models analyses for JMP® Statistical
Discovery software.
“I have really enjoyed my connections with SAS
Institute’s technical support and development staff,”
said Milliken. “The people in technical support have
been really helpful in formalizing the needed improvements and then communicating them to the software
developers, who are great to work with and truly want
to provide a product that will enable the data analyst
to obtain the best information from their data sets.”
1998
SASware BALLOT ®
RESULTS HIGHLIGHTED
During the Opening Session,
SAS Institute Technical Support Director
Dave Brumitt highlighted key items from
the 1998 SASware Ballot®. Among the top
vote-getters on the ballot were:
●
Calculate confidence intervals for
all appropriate statistics.
●
Provide power analysis and
sample-size determination in all
applicable procedures.
●
Implement a menu option for
exporting the contents of a SAS data
set or output window to a Microsoft
Word document file type.
●
Allow options on the TITLE and
FOOTNOTE statements to specify
bold or underlined text.
The full results of the 1998
SASware Ballot can be viewed
on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.sas.com/techsup/download/sasware/98results.html
SUGI 24
Blue Team claims top prize
in SUGI Quiz Bowl
Best paper award winners
and honorable mentions
More than 300 SUGI attendees gathered for a popular
SUGI tradition, the SUGI Quiz Bowl. Four teams of
SAS software users volunteered to compete in a game
show style trivia contest, emceed by SAS Institute’s
Vice President of North American Sales and Marketing
Barrett Joyner. The Monday night event, described as
“a fun run for the brain” resulted in victory for the Blue
Team, representing SUGI Section Chairs. Team members included Art Carpenter of California Occidental
Consultants, Michael Davis of Bassett Consulting,
Ginger Carey of University of Hawaii, Anup Roy of
University of Illinois, and Faith Sloan of FRS
Associates.
APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT
Using SAS Software as an Automation Server in
Windows Application Development
Zhuan (John) Xu, Big Creek Software, LLC
Pushing SAS/AF Software and SAS Frames in MVS
to the Limit: The US EPA’s AIRS Graphics System
Tom Link, US EPA
Art Alexander, SAS Institute Inc.
CODERS’ CORNER
What We Really Need is a %By Statement
Ray Pass, ASG, Inc.
DATA WAREHOUSING
Using SAS/CONNECT to Control a Distributed
Application
Roger Williams, Dimensional Insight
Taking an HTML Snapshot of a Data Warehouse:
Just Say, Cheese!
Eric Simms, Linden International
Jerry Kagan, Kagan Associates Inc.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Other contestants included:
●
●
●
The Aqua Team represented the NESUG
Executive Committee: Craig Dickstein of
ASG, Inc., Daphne Ewing of Synteract, Inc.,
Ray Pass of ASG, Inc., Clint Rickards of
Oxford Health Plans, and Mike Walega of
Covance, Inc.
The Pink Team represented SESUG: Frank
DiIorio, Joe Kelley of University of Georgia,
Greg Barnes Nelson of ASG, Inc., David Riba
of Jade Tech, Inc., and Robin Way of
Northwest Natural Gas.
The Purple Team represented Books by Users
Authors: Helen Carey of Carey Consulting,
Lora Delwiche of University of California, Jay
Jaffe of Kaiser Permanente, Phil Mason of
Woodstreet Consulting, UK, and Bob Virgile
of Robert Virgile Associates.
Unlocking the SAP/R3 System using SAS/ACCESS
Software to SAP/R3: A Practical Experience
Hans Hulpiau, SOLID Partners
Frank Rossaert, SOLID Partners
INFORMATION VISUALIZATION
Visually Detecting Fraudulent Providers in the
Medicaid Program Using SAS/GRAPH Software
Terry Allen, Utah Bureau of Medicaid Fraud
Glen Buckner, LDS Church Offices
INTERNET, INTRANETS, AND THE WEB
Using SAS Software and the Web for Information
Assimilation and Distribution: The Web
Enablement of the SESUG ‘97 Registration Process
Greg Ashley, University of Georgia
HONORABLE MENTION:
Three Ways to Utilize the SAS/IntrNet Application
Dispatcher
Steven L. Willhoite, Litton/PRC
John P. Campbell, Litton/PRC
George Orr, Litton/PRC
SUGI 24
POSTERS
MONDAY 1ST PLACE:
Taking the Drudgery Out of Data Checking: Automatic
Data Validation Using Formats to Validate Data, PROC
DATASETS to Drive the Process and Macros to Hang It
Altogether
David Trenery, Hoechst Marion Roussel
MONDAY 2ND PLACE:
Using Hyperlink to Organize SAS HTML Output
Connie X. Li, Constat Systems
James Sun
MONDAY HONORABLE MENTION:
Using Macros to Produce Multiple Time Series Graphs
Kim Blair, US Bureau of the Census
TUESDAY 1ST PLACE:
Proving it Works: Using PROC COMPARE to Verify an
Analysis Converted into SAS Software
Lauren Haworth, Kaiser Permanente Center
for Health Research
Njeri Karanja, Kaiser Permanente Center
for Health Research
TUESDAY 2ND PLACE:
CHEKOUT: A SAS Program to Screen for Outliers
James Handsfield, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
TUESDAY HONORABLE MENTION:
Smart Color for Powerful Visual Communication
in Your Applications
LeRoy Bessler, Bessler VisuComm & InfoTech
TUESDAY HONORABLE MENTION:
Retrievals from DB2 BLOB (Binary Large Objects)
Data Warehouse Using SAS Software
Tracy L. Lord, IBM
STATISTICS, DATA ANALYSIS,
AND MODELING
Design and Analysis of Equivalence Clinical Trials
via the SAS System
Pamela J. Atherton Skaff, Mayo Clinic
Jeff A. Sloan, Mayo Clinic
Statistical Process Monitoring of Correlated Binary and
Count Data Using Mixture Distributions
Jose G. Ramirez, Digital Semiconductor
Brenda S. Cantell, Unitrode Corporation
Randall Collica, Digital Semiconductor
HONORABLE MENTION:
Hot-deck Imputation with SAS Arrays and Macros
for Large Surveys
John G. Stiller, US Census Bureau
Donald R. Dalzell, US Census Bureau
SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE
Installation Issues with the SAS System and Netware 4
Geradette Furlow, NC State University
TRAINING AND USER SUPPORT SERVICES
Getting the User Community Involved in Education and
Information Sharing
Russell Newhouse, Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical
Research
SUGI 24
Drawing and closing
session winners
SUGI 23 SURVEY DRAWING
Flo Cade
American Express
WEB REGISTRATION
DRAWINGS
Pair of American Airline tickets:
Steve Morton
$50 gift certificates:
Alex Pearson
Chas Gastineau
Bill Killean
Wayne Keene
William Chan
Vincent Meehan
Bill Murphy
Clark Smothers
Joe Filip
Warren Stinson
Pair of American Airline tickets:
Mary Lohmann
Free set of JMP software, T-shirt,
mug, badge holder:
Carl Denney
Free SAS training seats:
Susan Parker
Kris Koschik
Free JMP training seat:
Alan Wisell
Free SAS gym bag w/ goodies:
Joan Lisle
Lewis Jay
User Group Booth cooler:
Jill Andrews
CLOSING SESSION
GIVEAWAYS
Free 3-night stay at the
Fontainebleau Hilton Resort and
Towers next year:
Pat Cerrito
Free SUGI 24 registration:
Deanna Castorena
SAS documentation (17 winners):
Joe Filip
Katherine Kulpen
Mike Papadatos
Marie Deparnay
Ian Whitlock
Bob Lackey
Kim Foster
Ray Pass
Kenneth Kwok
Chip Gleason
Margaret Westlake
Kris Koschik
Roscoe Frazier
Carolyn Williams
Dave Ballard
Albert Sion
Randall Guse
TECHNOLOGY PARTNER
GIVEAWAYS
NCR Jeans Jacket:
Kasi Herman
IBM Workpad:
Justine Okerson
HP Palm Top Computer:
Don Burklo
Digital Hi-Note Ultra 2000 laptop:
Roslyn White
5K FUN RUN/WALK
WINNERS
1st Place Male Runner:
Gene Fitzhugh (18:33)
1st Place Female Runner:
Jennifer Atlas (25:00)
1st Place Male Walker:
Denny Meyer (29:35)
1st Place Female Walker:
Su Chee Tay (38:53)
next year....
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