by Hilary Sigler
The Richards College of Business at the University of West Georgia welcomed several business professionals on April 11, 2014, as part of the 2nd Annual SAS Analytics Summit. Participants, speakers and students gathered in the UWG Coliseum to discuss analytic software and advancements being made and instituted in current businesses.
Statistical Analytic Software or SAS is a united software system for business solutions that allows business professionals to easily perform business-related tasks. Some of these tasks include data entry, retrieval and management. Currently, the software is used in almost all of the Fortune 500 companies.
The SAS certificate program at UWG is one of only eight programs of its kind in the United States. The summit allows UWG students to showcase their research projects and also to network with some of the top business professionals in the region on a one-on-one basis. During the Summit, SAS expert Dr. Tom R. Bohannon gave the UWG students an in-depth demonstration into the program to show the effectiveness of the software.
The day began with a keynote speech given by Dr. Clifton Loo, Regions Bank. Dr. Loo spoke about the necessity of the SAS program, and the effect that it has made throughout his career. The speech was then followed by a panel discussion comprised of three business professionals: UWG alumni David Johnson, partner at Cane Bay Partners VI, LLLP, UWG alumna Amanda Hand, analytics manager at FiveXFive and Lloyd W. Lay, senior manager marketing mix analytics at Coca-Cola. The panel discussed their personal experiences, using SAS in their current fields and how the software impacts their day-to-day duties.
“SAS is almost like a paintbrush to a painter,” says Lloyd. “You can do whatever you want with the program. SAS is like a bucket full of paintbrushes. You can do just about anything that you can think up.”
The Richards College of Business plans to continue to present the SAS Day Summit as well as the SAS certificate program at UWG. The annual event occurs in the spring and is open to the community.
For more information about the SAS Day Summit or the SAS certificate program at UWG, please visit www.westga.edu/business. For more information about the SAS software, please visit www.sas.com.
