"When people are passionate about what they do, they will achieve great things” I strongly believe this to be true. The world of analytics is such a fascinating industry. Every day I discover new applications and problems we can solve through the use of analytics. As Marketing Director at SAS it is my job to bring these stories to life and inspire people to do great things with data. In my blogs I want to fascinate you with a mixture of two of my favorite topics: analytics and marketing.

If you’re looking for in-dept insights in the world of (web) analytics, CRM, fraud detection and credit risk management, Bart Baesens is just the man you need. Bart is Professor of Big Data & Analytics at KU Leuven and lecturer at the University of Southhampton. Browse through his LinkedIn profile and you will soon find out that his research has been published in several top-notch international journals, and that he is author of Analytics in a Big Data World (2014)and co-author of Credit Risk Management: Basic Concepts (2008). Obviously Bart keeps the very best of his writing for the World of Analytics, so stay tuned.

Jill Dyché — frank, funny, and full of great stories — has been thinking, writing, and speaking about business-IT alignment for over two decades. Jill has lived in far-flung locales including Paris, London, and Sydney, lecturing at industry conferences, tech events, and leading business schools, and blogging on the topic of why
orporate technologies are — or, at least should be — businessdriven. She lives in Los Angeles, where she samples fringe Cabernets, rescues shelter dogs, and writes the occasional haiku.

Marketing has been a department driven by gut feelings for decades. The last few years, these instincts can be supported and eventually replaced by solid facts and figures.
Steven Hofmans helps companies achieving this data-driven marketing with the solutions offered by SAS. His knowledge of the technology combined with his thorough understanding of the ins and outs of marketing activities make him an expert in the field of data-driven marketing.

Making a difference in our ecosystem, that is what Jeroen Van Godtsenhoven wants to do with SAS. As the company’s Managing Director, Jeroen has the bigger picture in mind. Of course he wants the business to thrive and he wants the SAS team to bring customers’ business to a higher level, but he also wants to make a difference in the world around us. Like providing a SAS certification training for eligible refugees, which gives them a chance at starting a new life, and at the same time contributes to the continuous search for SAS-certified talent, both for SAS and its partners. Jeroen’s contribution to World of Analytics will be all about how analytics have an impact our society, and ultimately make the world a little bit better, one step at a time.

Michel is passionate about everything related to big data analytics, and how you can use these to make smarter business decisions. With a Master in Sociology and Statistics he first worked as a research assistent at the KU Leuven, but Michel soon joined SAS as a Senior Consultant. Today he has 15 years of valuable experience, truly seeing the world of analytics change. His key philosophy: analytics don't belong in a lab test environment, they are part of everyday life.

“Mieke combines a contagious enthusiasm with a deep knowledge on customer intelligence and digital transformation”, a nice reference on LinkedIn and a nice introduction for Mieke De Ketelaere’s bio. Mieke is Customer Intelligence Director at SAS for the South West Europe region. She has worked for several multinationals on all aspects of customer relations including transactional CRM, advanced analytical customer insight and interactive marketing. She is specialized in helping customers in defining the steps to grow in maturity in customer experience, customer intimacy and customer lifecycle management. Lately, Mieke De Ketelaere started to focus on the value of big data in marketing context. The arrival of new datastreams such as online and social data at one site and the calculation power at the other site, deliver a huge new set of real-time interesting insights at the fingertips of marketers. These new insights, if used wisely, allow operational marketing departments in return to take customer experience and intimacy to a higher level.

Mathias Coopmans combines business curiosity with technical skills, a powerful combo many professionals can only dream about. Passionate about big data and business analytics, Mathias helps companies across South-West Europe create value from Hadoop - the open-source data storage and distributed processing platform – integrating it into their business, both on the technical side and at the strategic level. Analytics and Big Data put to work, the best of both worlds!

“Our mission is to educate, inspire and empower scholars and professionals to apply data sciences to address humanity’s grand challenges.” There you go, Philippe Van Impe in a nutshell. Quoting his mission statement to describe Philippe is quite a lot easier than trying to sum up his professional activities: founder of the European Data Innovation Hub, founding partner of the Brussels Data Science Community, ‘social entrepreneur’ and ‘startup coach’. You see, Philippe is a tough professional to capture in such a short bio!

One of SAS’ credos is Creating Chances. And you might say Hélène Ernotte is the embodiment of that credo and ambition. The company’s HR Manager started as a Junior Recruiter at Microsoft in 2008. She joined SAS in 2012 as HR Business Partner, where she put her experience into practice and quickly became a valuable asset to the analytics firm. Though she is still only in her early thirties, Hélène is now in charge of all SAS’ HR activities in Belgium and Luxembourg. Her goal: to make sure SAS becomes the Great Place to Work of The Future.

A mix of business curiosity, technical skills and the urge to write stories that matter…that is what drives Frédéric to blog about. His favorite topic? People Analytics! Or to showcase the value of analytics when unveiling unsuspected connections behind complex human systems and behaviors.
Buckle up for some clear, ready-to-use insights in how analytics measure the human attributes of consumers and employees to predict the success or failure of a venture, and to model and optimize teams and companies. Because business is about people, about making people happy and comfortable. And to be successful in business we need time and analytics to know how to make this happen.