SQL progamming for SAS

Hi BI Crowd (or whatever we're called)! Here goes my first post :) I have recently started to teach myself how to do basic programming on SAS (I'm just a SAS EG user at this stage) and came across these links that I found very helpful. 1. http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi29/269-29.pdf This article explains the difference between DATA steps and SQL on SAS (although I'm still trying to figure out why there are two different types of programming.. all I know is I like SQL because I can grab the codes from SAS EG :P) 2. http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi30/257-30.pdf I'm using this as my manual to get my basic sorted on SQL programming. I'm finding it real useful. Sabrina also has an awesome book called SAS Certification Prep Guide: Base Programming, which I also found very helpful. If anyone comes across any other useful links or books on programming, please let me know! Better get back to real work..

Luck or success?

If you change your business process and it seems to work - how do you know it was luck or success? Of course the only way to know this is to measure your success and to understand the system.

Sounds simple but how many people do you know that do it?

Here's an interesting article that sparked this line of thinking:

http://hbr.org/2011/04/why-leaders-dont-learn-from-success/ar/1

Data Visualisation - redefining BI or just another graph?

Businesses and organizations today more than ever seem to be starving for information.
The problem usually is not whether the information exists or not, but how useful is it? Can stakeholders understand it and apply it to their work?

This is where I think data visualization comes in.  Data visualization to my understanding is all about simplifying information and presenting it to an audience in a way that makes intuitive sense to them.

Hans Rosling: Data Visualization

The question I ask, is whether data visualization is a revolution in business intelligence, or is it simply just another graph??