Pervasive SAS Techniques for Designing a Data Warehouse for an Integrated Enterprise: An Approach towards Business Process

In an attempt to find a method to create a stable, fast, easily modified replacement for a Microsoft Access database, SAS rapidly became the only choice as a replacement tool. SAS can very quickly be adapted for uses by relative beginners in novel ways to exploit its strengths as a data extraction and manipulation tool. Using PC SAS and SAS CONNECT for ODBC a method was found to convert the most fragile parts of a Rail Car Setoff reporting database. Aimed at the well-informed MS Office user with exposure to interest in SAS, this paper is intended to introduce PC SAS as a tool that does more than just statistical analysis but also is a viable alternate tool to the more traditional programming solutions. This shift from MS Access to SAS cut processing time from over 20 minutes to less than 4 and reduced the complexity of the database from multiple nested macros down to a single file that is in plain text in easily readable SAS® code. KeywordsData Warehouse, OLAP, SAS