NORTHERN ARIZONA U EXPANDS CENTER FOR DATA INSIGHT
SAS Institute, a market leader in data warehouse, data mining, and decision support, KPMG, a leading professional firm, and Northern Arizona University (NAU) recently announced the opening of an expansion of the university's Center for Data Insight (CDI).
The expansion, co-sponsored by SAS Institute and KPMG, adds a new training and research room, enabling NAU to offer business executives short courses in data mining and knowledge discovery. It also adds a powerful parallel computer to the CDI laboratory, where companies can mine their own data with the latest technologies, such as SAS Institute's market leading data mining software, Enterprise Miner.
KPMG selected Enterprise Miner, on exhibit through Wednesday at Faulkner & Gray's Card Marketing Conference '99 in Atlanta http://www.faulknergray.com/confer/cmc/index.htm, as the centerpiece of a new knowledge-discovery process and data-mining course for KPMG employees at the CDI. The first of five three-day courses will be launched Tuesday at the CDI using Enterprise Miner software as the chief training tool. Participants, including KPMG consultants, managers, partners, and business development managers, will be taught by CDI staff and have hands-on access to Enterprise Miner.
"The CDI houses leading tools and technologies, and SAS software clearly falls into this category as a long-time tool of choice for the CDI team," said Dr. Ken Collier, KPMG's senior manager for Knowledge Management Solutions. "We are currently seeing a high demand for advanced analytics in customer relationship management projects. KPMG has a leading CRM practice and is leveraging the CDI heavily in its solution set since measuring the customer relationship is central to managing it. This demand is very rapidly expanding to include knowledge-management technologies as more and more companies realize the need to see 'one customer' across all channels and touchpoints."
"SAS Institute and KPMG use the CDI as a unique and powerful resource for many of our clients," said Paul Bachteal, marketing director for SAS Institute North American. "By bringing client data and business problems to the CDI for proof-of-performance analyses, clients see immediate and actionable results, a solid business case for integrating advanced analytics into business processes, and an evaluation of several tools running side by side on real problems using real data.
"SAS Institute's alliance with KPMG and active involvement in the CDI bring together the world-class solution integration capabilities of KPMG, the analytics expertise of a leading-edge center of excellence, and the end-to-end decision support software that we offer," Bachteal noted. "We are excited about this relationship and how it will benefit our clients and advance these technologies to the next generation of solutions."
"Data mining is a maturing technology that is now ready to enter the mainstream of business practices," said Dr. Bern Carey, CDI director. "A few years ago, only a few companies had the foresight to consider applying data-mining technologies for improving business practices. Now, many companies are recognizing that data mining provides a competitive advantage. Such companies are looking for ways to train their staffs in how to best understand and deploy data mining in their organizations. The new CDI training center will support those needs by offering short courses customized to business needs."
Data mining is the process of selecting, exploring, and modeling large amounts of data to uncover previously unknown patterns of data for business advantage. Enterprise Miner software helps business users maximize profits and minimize losses by letting them predict costs and profits associated with specific decisions. The software fosters cross-departmental collaboration via Web reports and an environment that lets business decision-makers and quantitative experts work on the same project simultaneously. SEMMA, an acronym for the methodology of sampling, exploring, modifying, modeling, and assessing large quantities of data, is accomplished within SAS Enterprise Miner via a single simple GUI. To see how well Enterprise Miner software stacks up against competing data mining products, please visit: http://www.gartnerweb.com/public/axl/reprints/sas/00082107.html.
"Data mining is an end-to-end process," Carey said. "One of the aspects of SAS software that we like is that it provides assistance and analytical capability at each stage in that process. Its versatility lets us adapt the tools to different problem demands."
SAS Institute, the world's largest privately held software company, is the leader in decision support and data warehousing, providing integrated enterprise information-delivery solutions. Founded in 1976, the Institute markets packaged business solutions for vertical industry and departmental applications, as well as an integrated suite of software tools and consulting services. These allow companies to transform the wide variety of data within their organizations into information that business users and researchers need to make better decisions. SAS software and services are used at more than 33,000 business, government, and university sites in 115 countries. SAS Institute achieved 1998 revenue of $871 million. Please visit SAS Institute's Web site: http://www.sas.com/.
KPMG LLP is the U.S. member firm of KPMG International. In the U.S., KPMG partners and professionals provide a wide range of accounting, tax and consulting services. As a provider of information-based services, KPMG delivers understandable business advice helping clients analyze their businesses with true clarity, raise their level of performance, achieve growth and enhance shareholder value. KPMG International's member firms have more than 100,000 professionals, including 6,800 partners, in 160 countries. KPMG's Consulting practice can be found on the web at http://www.kpmgconsulting.com or reached through the firm's site at http://www.us.kpmg.com.
Northern Arizona University, based in Flagstaff, Arizona, is now celebrating its 100th anniversary as one of the three universities in the State of Arizona university system. Today, NAU's enrollment ranks in the top 5 percent of schools and colleges in the nation serving approximately 20,000 students. NAU has an international reputation for its cutting-edge delivery of distributed learning. NAU is a leader in environmental and cultural studies for the Colorado Plateau. NAU ranks fourth nationally in the number of bachelor's degrees awarded to Native Americans. The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities recently designated NAU as a Hispanic-serving institution. The Center for Data Insight (CDI) is just one example of advanced technical capabilities at NAU designed to meet the needs of modern industry. Please visit NAU's Web site: http://www.nau.edu/.