As many of you are likely aware, Adobe made the decision some time ago to decommission their popular Flash Player at the end of 2020. You may be wondering how this affects you as a SAS customer… and the short answer is that for anyone leveraging SAS tools or solutions which make use of Flash, the repercussions may be keenly felt and certainly bear some consideration. SAS has been working diligently for some time to ensure that business continuity for our customers remains uninterrupted as best as possible. You can find an overview of the situation and some possible solutions here. There are a few options which we want to share.   As SAS continues to evolve towards a cloud-driven, agile, scalable paradigm, upgrading to the Viya framework is the easiest way to avoid most Flash-related issues. In truth, the business benefits of Viya extend far beyond addressing Flash end-of-life – there are many more advantages to evolving your analytical practice as SAS does as well. To learn more about Viya and what it can do for your business, please feel free to visit the SAS Viya website.   A migration of this size and scale may not always be feasible. As A SAS 9.4 customer, you also have options to help address the Flash situation by simply upgrading to the M7 release which went live in August. In addition to many security enhancements and operating system support, the M7 update explicitly addresses Flash dependencies by removing them from your SAS environment. To learn more about the changes which M7 supports, have a look at this post which details the changes included in the M7 release in detail. To assist you with your upgrade, you can leverage the System Evaluation Tool within the free SAS 9 Content Assessment Application. Learn more about how it helps you upgrade in place smoothly at this link. You’ll find a video demonstration link in the “When do I use it?” section of the article.   SAS takes our responsibility to support our customers very seriously and these steps will help ensure continuity of business as best as possible. This link will provide you with guidance to remove the use of Adobe Flash from your SAS environment. In addition, our ‘virtual’ door is always open, so please do reach out to your SAS representatives for more assistance, we’re ready to help. ... View more

Hi Everyone; Just a quick note around submitting invoices moving forward. Many of you are good enough to pay for catering/AV/venue rentals out of your own pockets, and get reimbursed through myself. Our Finance Department has asked for a slight change. When ordering any of these items, please provide my name and billing address as the 'client of record'. This will allow SAS to directly pay the invoice without having to involve your personal funds as best as possible. To mitigate any 'on the ground' user group related expenses which often crop up (i.e. deposits, need to pre-pay, etc.) and are incurred by yourselves, I will be positing a form shortly which will allow SAS to actually create an invoice for you. I would ask that you use the form moving forward in the event that you have to pay for something out of your own pocket. I hope this isn't too confusing, and do comment if you have feedback. ... View more

Hi Everyone; For those of you going to SAS Global Forum this year, I wanted to provide a great 'prep doc' which Lisa Eckler of Toronto put together last year. Lisa is also the chair of NESUG in Baltimore in 2010, and has been very invovled as a Section Chair and regular presenter at SAS Global Forum. This is a great document for first-timers and veterans alike! ... View more

Hi Everyone; As you know, the user group program is pleased to sponsor a representative from each regional user group to attend SGF. Often, it's the President who attends, but by no means is this 'etched in stone'. I'd like everyone to start thinking about who will be headed to Seattle, WA from April 11th-14th, 2010. As always, SAS will cover registration/accomodations, with the flight being left up to you or your organization. So, who's coming? ... View more

Hello Executive Members! I'm attaching the current 2010 user group calendar. As mentioned in my email, some groups have already committed to dates: these are indicated by the colour green in the appropriate cell. Other dates which have been proposed but not yet firmed up are unfilled by any colour. The same scheme applies for the venue: proposed remain unfilled, and already booked are indicated by the colour green. Please feel free to work with each other in order to co-ordinate the best dates for your group! Of note: SAS Global Forum takes place from April 11-14th, 2010. ... View more

Hello User Group Executives; I'd like to propose that Enterprise Guide be a standard 'lead-off' presentation for all future user group meetings. I think that EG presents us with a technology that helps new users get up to speed quickly on what SAS can do, and helps experienced users with another tool at their disposal. With the growth in EG usage everywhere, I think it makes sense to build it in as a regular feature for the first half of user group/customer forum meetings. Also, newer users can count on coming out for the first half of user group meetings without being blown away. Hopefully, over time, they'll feel comfortable staying for the whole meeting as their experience and comfort level grows. Of course, coding/programming presentations would also be offered: but this gives a well-rounded approach to serving both coders and 'point and click' SAS users alike. Your thoughts? ... View more