The SAS Analytics Lab for State and Local Government plans to add 100 new technology and government experts and arm them with the data analysis power of SAS’ new 38,000 square-foot cloud computing center.
The lab partners with state and local leaders to improve government services with the latest in advanced analytics technology. It currently devotes the resources of more than 200 professional, mostly doctoral-level SAS experts to devising technology solutions to critical state and local government issues, such as fraud, waste, abuse, tax collection, public safety and education.
"At a time when we must maximize the use of every state dollar, we are grateful to have a company like SAS in the fight against fraud, waste and abuse in state government," said North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue. "Saving tax dollars and creating jobs are certainly high on my priority list."
Confident that interest in analytics by state and local governments will only increase, SAS plans to add more than 100 positions to the lab over the next two years. In addition to North Carolina, SAS plans to place technology and subject matter experts throughout the country, where new projects are announced.
"The SAS Analytics Lab for State and Local Government focuses some of our most brilliant minds on today's most urgent challenges," said Paula Joshi, Vice President of SAS State and Local Government Practice. "The current model falters in an internationally competitive environment, as state and county governments face daunting budget deficits. Government technology leaders are not just looking for new solutions to old problems, but new strategies for technology investment."
The state and local lab expands the SAS Advanced Analytics Lab, led by John Brocklebank, PhD. The lab has grown at least 35 percent annually since its founding in 2000. "Demand for hosted services among state and local governments has risen sharply," said Brocklebank. "Bolstering our technical capabilities with subject matter experts gives state and local governments powerful and cost-effective options when they really need them."
SAS' Cloud Computing Center will quadruple SAS' capacity for data hosting. "Our ability to host data reduces risk for government customers and saves precious tax dollars on hardware and personnel," adds Joshi. "State and local government leaders have seen the efficiencies that technologies such as cloud computing, analytics and data integration have brought to the private sector, and more recently the government sector."
Several customers already embrace the hosted model:
The North Carolina Criminal Justice Law Enforcement Automated Data System (CJLEADS) integrates data from the state's various criminal justice applications, providing up-to-date criminal information in a secure, centralized location for use by state and local government criminal justice professionals. More than 1,000 users from criminal justice organizations in Wake County are currently training on or using the application. Several arrests have been attributed to the system.
Los Angeles County uses the hosted SAS® Fraud Framework for Government, which addresses such government concerns as detecting collusive patterns in entitlement programs, e.g. Medicare and Medicaid, to purchase-card fraud, bid-rigging and terrorist financing. LA County used SAS to uncover child-care benefits fraud, prevent public assistance fraud, and enhance district attorney investigations.
SAS' most enduring hosted solution is SAS® Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS®) for K-12 , with more than 1.7 million log-ins to date. EVAAS was a difference maker in the Race to the Top education reform effort – three winners have statewide implementations of SAS EVAAS for K-12 and six more have widespread use at the district level.
Tennessee, North Carolina and Ohio use SAS EVAAS for K-12 statewide to measure the effectiveness of districts, schools and teachers. It also predicts student performance on standardized tests, assessing how likely students are to succeed in milestone courses such as eighth-grade Algebra I.
SAS is used in all 50 states and more than 115 local governments to transform their operations to deliver the right services, at the right time, with the appropriate resources. SAS offers a wide array of data integration, business intelligence and analytics solutions, and collaborates with government to create innovative offerings tailored to specific departmental and agency goals.
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