Retrospect and personal take-aways from Analytics Experience 2018 - by Stefan Stark

[BeStibolt]

Stefan Stark, working as a Data Scientist at Forefront Consulting Group in Sweden, recently attended SAS Analytics Experience conference, taking place in Milan, Italy, on October 22-24.

In this video clip, Stefan presents his take-aways.

Translated into English, his message is:

SAS have talked a lot about integrating SAS with open source tools such as Python and R. This is an essential step as many of the young and newly graduated Analysts and Data Scientists entering the market are very much into open source. Also, when working in a project together it is important that everybody can work with the same platform regardless of which tool they use.

It is always good to be reminded of what is possible to achieve with Analytics. It might be easier to build models nowadays. However, the real work starts when getting the customer to use these and get benefits and business values from the models. Many of the discussions I have had with other attendees at this conference have been about these issues.

In one session I learned how Sky Broadcasting in the UK are working with CRM and Analysis. They pointed out that when they build their models and experience improvements of for example 30-40%, they still ask the Business Area Experts to investigate the models to add their knowledge and input. If there are data that the model is lacking, then they make sure to add more data into the model and further develop it. I believe this is a very good approach which I intend to use, embrace and bring out to customers directly.

I have also looked at how SAS is working with Image analysis and how they have opened for the ability to drive Python code straight into SAS^® Viya^® via APIs. This is very interesting and something I would like to try when I return.

It was also very interesting listening to Botan Calli, Head of Customer Analytics at Scandinavian Airlines. He presented the work we at Forefront have assisted them in and showed how far they have progressed. Still, there are elements left to be done in the project, but the results so far have been very positive. I am a bit biased, but I think this was the best presentation at the Analytics Experience 2018 conference.

From the Opening session at AX18

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Forefront Consulting Group AB specializes in helping its clients to be in the forefront of future development. With joint efforts they strive to strengthen their clients’ digital capabilities through their target areas; Digital transformation, Analytics, eCommerce, Mobility & Cloud. Read more