SAS(R) University Edition Adds Forecasting to Foster In-Demand Business Skills

CARY, NC--(Marketwired - September 02, 2015) - More than 350,000 professors and learners of all ages are already gaining valuable SAS skills through the free SAS® University Edition. And they can now add forecasting to their arsenal. The new version of SAS University Edition includes a range of forecasting technologies critical to business, economics, manufacturing and other disciplines.

"The new forecasting capabilities in SAS University Edition help students develop skills they can immediately apply in the workforce," said Emily Baranello, Senior Director of the SAS Education Practice. "Many MBA students take a course in supply chain planning and logistics. For them and others, forecasting experience with SAS will broaden their marketability upon graduation."

The forecasting procedures join a multitude of capabilities in SAS University Edition. The offering provides free, easy access to statistical software to learn and perform quantitative analysis. Writing and submitting code is easy, with a powerful graphical interface to SAS advanced statistical analysis software. The ability to make sense of data is not only in high demand by employers, but is also critical to college coursework.

Professor James A. Rodger, DBA, uses SAS University Edition in his courses at the Eberly College of Business and IT at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. "SAS University Edition is great training for real-world careers ranging from software engineering to system and business analysts and data scientists. Students have found insights in data that were not apparent previously using other statistical analysis programs," said Rodger. "Business intelligence, data mining, sabermetrics, big data ... these dragons will be a lot easier to slay now that students have SAS on their side."

Rodger is also impressed by SAS University Edition's virtualization, presentation of code and visualization of results. "The visualization provided by SAS is a game changer and really helps students with the interpretation of data. The virtualization ran flawlessly, and the code output exceeded what I would expect from competing software applications," he said.

In addition to downloading from SAS, users can also access SAS University Edition through the Amazon Web Services Marketplace. Part of the AWS in Education program, the service combines powerful, easy-to-use SAS Analytics with on-demand AWS cloud computing.

For a quick view of how SAS University Edition can advance data skills and knowledge, read the SAS University Edition Fact Sheet.

SAS University Edition is part of SAS Analytics U, a global education initiative offering free software, university partnerships and compelling user communities. SAS also offers free e-learning resources and tutorials, including SAS Programming 1 and Statistics 1, and an online community to connect and share. SAS University Edition is just one of several free software options for noncommercial use, including SAS OnDemand for Academics and SAS Visual Analytics via Teradata University Network.

SAS in education

With a special focus on education, SAS strives to give everyone THE POWER TO KNOW®. From SAS® Curriculum Pathways® free digital curriculum and mobile apps for K-12, to free and low-cost access to world-class software offered through SAS Analytics U, SAS is committed to learners of all ages. Additionally, SAS collaborates with colleges and universities around the world to launch degree and certificate programs to foster the current and next generation of analytics talent. With nearly four decades of working in education, SAS brings together individuals, institutions, communities and data to prepare people for college, career, life and brighter futures.

About SAS

SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions, SAS helps customers at more than 75,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2015 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.