which training do I need?

[guanf]

Hi,

I am a newbie in SAS data analyst position and tasked with SAS reporting from couple of databases through a local server, which we need to move it to a central IT server and build data warehouse. my SAS EG knowledge is very limited. I am wondering what kind of trainings I need to take step by step and speed up the learning curve? I have some SQL programming background.

1. should I get SAS EG1: Querying and Reporting first or SAS EG for Experienced SAS Programmers or should I get both? or I could take some free training course on this site for both?

2.does the free e-learning: SAS Programming 1: Essentials  equal to the course of SAS Programming 1: Essentials?

3. when should I start taking Data Integration, data mining course?

4. to move SAS from local server to a central server, what courses should I take? or what role should take what courses to help reach this goal?

Thanks a lot!

Fran

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:

  Whether you take the Enterprise Guide training or the SAS Programming 1 training, understanding how the SAS LIBNAME statement works (or Assign Project Library in EG) will be what you need to read your SAS tables and your database tables (assuming you have the right SAS/Access product for your database).

  You would learn that in either Programming 1 or Enterprise Guide 1. I would not recommend EG for Experienced SAS Programmers, unless you are, in fact, an experienced SAS Programmer.

  If you are performing analytic tasks (like ANOVA and Regression), then after either of the above courses, you would take the appropriate ANOVA/Regression course (either the programming version of Statistics 1 or the EG version of Statistics 1).

  The difference in e-learning is that the only free e-learning courses are Programming 1 and Statistics 1 -- the programming e-learning classes -- not the Enterprise Guide version of the training.

  The content of the Programming 1 e-learning course is the same as the content of the classroom version of the course. The difference is that you have an "in person" instructor for the classroom (or Live Web) training, but there is no instructor for the e-learning. Lectures are delivered via movies or prerecorded lectures.

  Again, your question about moving from a local server to a central server is going to get another "it depends" answer because if you are using the BI Platform, with DI Studio, then I would recommend the Platform Administration classes.

  It seems to me as though you are going to wear a lot of hats, typically, a Platform Administrator is not doing a lot of programming or statistical analysis or data mining, but is working with servers and security and defining users and groups. And vice versa, a Data Miner is typically not doing a lot of Platform Administration work.

  If you go to our main learning path page (http://support.sas.com/training/us/paths/), you will see all the learning paths in which we provide training. Every learning path title is a clickable link. To review the courses in the Programming learning path, for example, click on that link. On the Programming learning path, you will see all the courses offered in that path. When you click on any single course title, you will go directly to the course web page, where you can review the Prerequisites for a course and see the detailed course outline, see the prices for each training format, the offering dates, etc. Or you could click on the Enterprise Guide learning path.

But, if you look under Advanced Analytics, you will see all the "statistically oriented" learning paths. So you will see Statistical Analysis path and then paths for Data Mining or Econometrics and Forecasting.

  There are also learning paths for Data Integration and Platform Administration. So we have "learning paths" for all the topic areas you've mentioned, you just need to look at the classes in each learning path to see which class will serve your needs best. You might also want to consult with your co-workers to see which classes they have taken or which they recommend.

  Your question about Data Integration or Data Mining is really 2 different questions. Do you have SAS Data Integration Studio? That is one learning path with classes that are not statistical in nature, but are more geared to using DI Studio to build the metadata tables used by the BI Platform. On the other hand, Data Mining can be done a couple of different ways -- you can write programs, you can use SAS Enterprise Miner, you can use JMP or you can use a solution suite that has some Data Mining capabilities built in. Depending on how you will do your Data Mining, you will probably take classes from the Data Mining learning path.

  Your best approach might be to isolate what is the most critical task you have to perform -- is it writing programs or is it working with setting up servers and users? If you can't decide on the best route or training, you can send mail to training@sas.com and ask for recommendations; but the recommendations that you get will all come back to taking different classes. There isn't 1 class that teaches programming and Enterprise Guide and  Data Integration and Data Mining and Platform Administration.

cynthia

[Reeza]

That sounds like a really broad job description.

I would start by narrowing it down first and figuring out what your main tasks will be.

My guess is that Data Mining is likely to be far down the list.

guanf wrote:

SAS reporting from couple of databases through a local server, which we need to move it to a central IT server and build data warehouse.

It sounds like a reporting position. You should take the base programming courses as well as the base EG courses. In addition you should definitely take a reporting class.

Depending on how much you know about data warehouse and your role in creating the warehouse, I'd be looking into good data warehouse design as well. Its hard to re-create a bad data warehouse and a good data warehouse is worth it's weight in gold.

If you have other analysts you're working with, I'd also ask them for their recommendations.

I'd also ask if you can pair program with them as that's the fastest way to learn IMO.