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Section Chairs: |
Greg Barnes Nelson ASG, Inc. Cary, NC |
Chris Toppe AT&T Solutions Chantilly, VA |
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Clients <-> Agent <-> Servers: Accessing Distributed, Heterogeneous Databases |
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Sigurd Hermansen, Westat, Inc., Rockville, MD |
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Databases in the future will certainly become more widely distributed across applications and platforms. Even now we are seeing on intranets and the Internet a surge in database implementations that cross DBMS and system boundaries. That trend seems likely to accelerate. Concurrently, the boundaries of database systems are being stretched to encompass multiple forms of data dictionaries, different data types and objects, and new ideas about the relations among data objects. Distributed and heterogeneous databases open up new possibilities for systems, but present new challenges as well. Builders of database access systems are relying more and more on middleware solutions to the problem of combining data. In this presentation, we suggest a scheme that links database clients and servers under the control of an agent program. As a simple example, we present a MS Access form that builds a SAS SQL query for a networked client PC, directs the query to a SAS database on a Unix server under ODBC protocol, and displays the yield of the query on the PC as an MS Access table. This example provides a springboard for a discussion of the advantages and difficulties inherent in clients<->agent<->servers designs for distributed databases. |
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Sig Hermansen designs research databases and manages a group of programmers who develop application systems and data analysis procedures for Westat's biomedical studies group. He has over 10 years of experience in SAS programming. Current projects include record linkage, list matching, and pattern recognition applications. |
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Version 7 Output Delivery System |
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Paul Kent, SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC |
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This paper discusses advances made in the printed output generated by all SAS procedures. New features include HTML generation, output data set creation from any printed output and a presentable output document. ODS also produces all legacy line-mode printing. |
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Paul Kent manages the group of developers at SAS Institute responsible for most of the Procedures in Base SAS Software (including ODS). He has been a SAS user for nearly 20 years, and he has been employed by the Institute since 1984. Previous contributions to the SAS software repertoire include PROC SQL, the WHERE statement and the TCP/IP Communications Access Methods. |
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Survival Strategies and Solutions for the New Millennium - Year 2000 |
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Kirk Paul Lafler, Software Intelligence Corporation, Spring Valley, CA |
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As the turn of the century approaches, critical challenges face organizations world-wide. Will mission-critical computer applications be equipped to handle the numerous calculations and comparisons required by businesses to successfully operate? And how can organizations smoothly transition into the next century without impacting current operations and staffing levels? If estimates are accurate, as much as 90 percent of all business applications will be impacted in some way by the coming millennium. A successful strategy is needed to ensure cost-effective, timely, and lasting SAS software applications and solutions. This presentation describes a comprehensive approach to minimize disruption while reducing risk to your business. Numerous strategies and solutions using the SAS software will be presented to effectively transition your mission-critical applications smoothly into the next century. |
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Kirk Paul Lafler is senior consultant and founder of Software Intelligence Corporation with twenty years of experience using the SAS System. His areas of expertise includes information-based systems analysis, design, and development; year 2000; computer training; course design and development; and custom programming using base-SAS, SAS/SQL, SAS/FSP, SAS/AF, Screen Control Language, FRAME, and SAS/EIS software. |
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Creating a Successful Analysis Environment for a Data Warehouse |
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Sam Paper, Jacksonville, FL |
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This presentation discusses the strategy and design for a successful PC/SAS desktop environment accessing Enterprise Data Warehouse and its respective DataMarts. The presentation reviews the necessary customization efforts that provides the required extensions, its capabilities and enhancements. A walkthrough of the FRAME entries and the SCL programs will also be provided. |
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Biography not available at press time. |
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Reports at Your Fingertips: Displaying > SAS-Generated Data on the World |
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Gilbert Rodriguez and M. Rita Thissen |
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The World Wide Web provides SAS-language programmers with a quick and easy way to display the output of their applications. Using a simple website, a wide variety of information can be presented in an organized manner, accessible to users at any location. The combination of new technology with traditional SAS-language reporting methods is ideal for use with production systems that generate large numbers of reports for a widespread audience. This paper describes a website which functions as an information management system for a large-scale project, making status reports, budget information, projections and other routine reports available to users at the click of the mouse. |
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Biographies not available at press time. |
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Warehousing: A Learning Experience with Health Care Survey Consolidation |
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James Zadinsky |
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Recently there have been a blizzard of articles in the reengineering of the health care industry with the major focuses on information delivery systems, managed care, and patient surveys. Changes are occurring at rapid speed, and along with these changes evolved four national Department of Defense surveys. The Department of Defense (DoD), Health Affairs, issued a call for help to integrate the results of the analysis. These surveys, multiple datasets, contain thousands of unique by-values; for example, a dataset describing all the eligible beneficiaries of a particular insurance plan by gender, rank, age, etc. The Center for Total Access at Fort Gordon, Georgia, is presently studying possible strategies. SAS warehousing methodology dovetailed with categorical analysis (Multidimensional Contingency Tables) were chosen as the tools to do battle with this gigantic data monster. Moreover, a strategic mapping of the characteristics of those individuals is critical to identify the responders on the specific questions; for example, new enrollment in Tri-care prime. At the end of this long tunnel, the end-users, clients, lead agents, or physicians need to have a simple software product, user friendly (GUI), to plot the trends of their own unique population. Better business decisions and practices would result from this drill-down analysis. |
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Biography not available at press time. |
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Panel Discussion: The Future of Technology |
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Eric Brinsfield, Greg Barnes Nelson, Tony Brown, Don Henderson, Paul Kent, Judy Loren |
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Join some of the best SAS developers around for a moderated panel discussion as they address the future of the technology as it relates to the SAS System. The focus will be on a historical perspective of what technology has promised and what was delivered. We will attempt to put out visionary caps on a try to make some sense about where we think technology will take us in the Year 2000 and beyond. You will have a chance to hear some SAS Institute folks in charge of providing direction to future versions of SAS software as well as senior consultants in the world of development. This is your opportunity to hear, see, and comment on technology 2000. Each of the panel members will describe a technology challenge and provide their insight as to where we think it will lead. We will then open the floor for discussion on the topics presented by the panelist.
Panel members will include:
Topics May Include:
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Biographies not available at press time. |
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