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Chief Data Scientist & Principal Consultant, StatLabs® at Facts n Data™ at a consultancy
Consultant
Enables Statistical Modeling Of Data Using Base SAS Although Limited GUI is a drawback

What is most valuable?

It enables statistical modeling of data using Base SAS (another product from the same vendor) as the backbone. One can create visual models to see the steps involved in modelling of data.

How has it helped my organization?

Using Base SAS, one can do statistical analysis of data. However, Base SAS is completely code driven (doesn't have any GUI). This is a big limitation as statisticians, often, are not so good at programming. SAS Enterprise Miner extends GUI capability and visual appeal to Base SAS, to a good extent.

What needs improvement?

The product is still not as intuitive as one would like it to be. For example, a competing product, IBM SPSS Modeler is nearly completely GUI driven, while SAS Enterprise Miner lacks some features. Plus it is prohibitively expensive and is not available with perpetual licensing.

For how long have I used the solution?

Over seven years.

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October 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Not many.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It gets painfully slow with raw data in excess of 50GB and one has to go for multi-socket server based licensing that gets prohibitively expensive.

How are customer service and support?

Email based support has a turnaround time of about 24 hours which is not good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We use multiple solutions simultaneously.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was OK. Not too complex, not too simple.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It has an annual licensing policy with an annual renewal of almost 35%. The initial cost (and therefore renewals) are extremely expensive. One can possibly invest that much in hardware and possibly go in for products like R that are very cheap in terms of total cost of ownership.

For clarity, R is an open source tool but with the limitation that it's an in-memory tool. When dealing with large datasets, RAM becomes an issue. R is much more flexible. So, rather that investing in a SAS license, we prefer to invest in high RAM hardware (256/512GB RAM) and use R.

Another issue with R is that native version is a single core product. Even if you have a multi-core CPU, it uses a single core. However, Microsoft R, a free version from Microsoft, does away with that limitation. There is also a multi-core (paid) version of R available through Microsoft which does away with in-memory limitation and works out to be much cheaper than SAS Enterprise Miner.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

IBM SPSS Modeler, RapidMiner, R.

What other advice do I have?

Be sure of your needs. In most scenarios, the pricing of SAS Enterprise Miner is not justified by the value it adds.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Director at EBI
Real User
Scalable, with good functional, but the languarge integration is not good
Pros and Cons
  • "he solution is scalable."
  • "The solution needs an easier interface for the user. The user experience isn't so easy for our clients."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for data mining and machine learning.

How has it helped my organization?

It helps the organization to build the DS part easily.

What is most valuable?

The data processing of the solution is very good, easy to use, both for enterprise and personal use.

What needs improvement?

The solution needs a language integration like Python for the user with more efficiency programming; SAS is kind of a powerful tool in past years that focus in SAS environment. but Python is more open and popular, which will be more acceptable in today's data science area.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for about ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability isn't perfect. We have issues with accuracy. In some AI forecasting areas, and the accuracy is not as good as the clients need it to be.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support for the solution is okay.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not so easy. Not many clients know much about the AI, so it's difficult to educate our clients on AI tech in order to make them feel comfortable using the product once it's implemented. Deployment takes about three to six months.

What other advice do I have?

We use the cloud deployment model.

Our clients want to use more popular and more open-source tools, so SAS isn't so popular in our region.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. I'd rate the solution higher if it was easier to use. Right now, it requires too much effort to explain the tool to clients.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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Data Mining
October 2024
Find out what your peers are saying about SAS, IBM, Knime and others in Data Mining. Updated: October 2024.
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Business Intelligence Developer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Compare performance of multiple models built using different algorithms
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is that you can use multiple algorithms for creating models and then you can compare the results between them."
  • "The visualization of the models is not very attractive, so the graphics should be improved."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use was for predictive analytics and to create a forecasting model. I was also using it for reporting.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is that you can use multiple algorithms for creating models and then you can compare the results between them.

What needs improvement?

The visualization of the models is not very attractive, so the graphics should be improved.

I would like to see the user interface improved a bit.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have only been using SAS Enterprise Miner for a short time.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have not had any major issues with stability.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not contacted technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used different solutions for Visual Analytics, but they have been for personal use.

How was the initial setup?

I would say that the initial setup was a bit complex and hard to understand in the beginning. Overall, it was not very easy and not very difficult.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The license is really expensive. This solution is for large corporations because not everybody can afford it. It is a little bit tricky because you have to buy a license for each and every component that you use. For example, we wanted to add a plugin and we needed to buy it, which makes this an expensive tool.

What other advice do I have?

We did not deploy this solution for our customer. Rather, we used Enterprise Miner to create a solution that was operationalized for production.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Founder and CEO with 11-50 employees
Real User
Scalable and stable, but needs a better user interface
Pros and Cons
  • "The setup is straightforward. Deployment doesn't take more than 30 minutes."
  • "The user interface of the solution needs improvement. It needs to be more visual."

What is our primary use case?

I primarily use the solution for text mining.

What is most valuable?

Normally I use the SAS 6 Miner, it's a component of SAS Enterprise Miner. It's very useful.

What needs improvement?

The user interface of the solution needs improvement. It needs to be more visual.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution, especially 14.3, is very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support has been good. At the start of using the product, I had issues. I called them and they were very helpful. I'd rate them five out of five.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is straightforward. Deployment doesn't take more than 30 minutes.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

For me, the pricing is $3000 monthly for the license. There aren't any additional costs.

What other advice do I have?

Currently, I am using the desktop version of the solution, but I do plan to move to the cloud.

In terms of advice, I'd tell other organizations to be specific about their use case as there are many components that can be used.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user78834 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Information Manager Unit at BCI with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
It helps us obtain better campaign results, though the graphic capabilities could be improved.

Valuable Features:

  • Quantity models for data mining
  • Performance is excellent

Improvements to My Organization:

  • Helps one of the banks where I've worked (CGD at Portugal) to have more knowledge of their clients
  • Helps us obtain better campaign results (credit cards, etc).

Room for Improvement:

  • Price of the product
  • Graphing functionalities
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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Updated: October 2024
Buyer's Guide
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