Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Thu, 7 Jan 1993 17:40:22 PST
Reply-To:     Mark Schildhauer <schild%alishaw@HUB.UCSB.EDU>
From:         Mark Schildhauer <schild%alishaw@HUB.UCSB.EDU>
Subject:      SAS for accounting, shipping, etc.
Comments: To: sas-l@ohstvma.ircc.ohio-state.edu
Comments: cc: schild@alishaw.ucsb.edu

CONTENTS: Query re SAS as an Administrative solution
PLATFORM: Unix (Sun4), maybe integrating with DOS Windows,
              MVS, CMS

Hi folks,

   Is anyone out there successfully using SAS, particularly
on Unix servers networked via TCP/IP, to provide a complete
administrative solution for an organization with thousands of
employees and clients? Desired capabilities would include:

  Accounting, shipping/receiving, inventory, insurance records,
  and possibly things like: executive information systems,
  electronic forms delivery, and close integration with
  SQL servers on multiple platforms.

Factors like security and concurrency would be important, as well
as ease of use.  We're wondering if it is possible to employ SAS
as it bills itself, that is, as a complete IDS. Given the booming
growth in client/server models of data access, particularly with
SQL-compliant DBMS's on multiple platforms; and easy to use,
graphically-oriented SQL-clients such as on networked Mac's and Intel
machines running MS Windows, does SAS Institute provide a superior
or complementary system for meeting the needs described above?

SAS is heavily used by the analysts at my site, but how realistic
is it for everyone from administrators (who might currently be used to
receiving hardcopy from their advisors) to dept'l bookkeepers/secretaries
(who might be struggling daily with some Xbase product) to also
be satisfied with SAS?  Currently at my site, information flows into
several mainframes, where any of a number of 'proprietary' systems must
be accessed in order to collect the data needed for standard tasks.
Typically extracts are then downloaded to Unix boxes or micro's,
where spreadsheets or Xbase-type products are used to further treat
the data, or prepare it for cosmetic-correctness.  Only the bravest
analysts can move swiftly and surely in this labyrinthine cyberspace.
Something's gotta give in this era of empowerment on the desktop.

I guess this is my dream: SQL-compliant servers on any of a variety of
platforms, transparently talking to SQL-clients on networked micro's,
with all the higher-level functionality of SAS accessible (database
management, graphics, exploratory data analysis, statistics), but at
the low-end, a complete menu-based GUI-style point-and-click interface.

I know about Assist, and have some basic understanding of the capabilities
of SCL, AF, and FSP.  But is anyone really enthusiastically successful
in applying these modules in the functions described above?  Surely these
needs are pretty darned standard, and there is a proliferation of off-the-shelf
 solutions to them at the microcomputer level, which seem to work fine for
small businesses. SAS seems awfully close to potentially filling this need
for scaling up to the large organizational structures, and I realize it
is probably an option when viewed from the perspective of Applications
Development.  But is SAS moving towards shrink-wrapping this functionality
at a more focused level?  For example, the impending releases of SAS/EIS
and SAS/GIS sound very promising. Will we see SAS/Accounting, or
SAS/Office?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Cheers,
Mark Schildhauer, Ph.D.
Technical Coordinator
Social Science Computing Facility
University of California, Santa Barbara 93106
(805) 893-3628   Internet: schild@alishaw.ucsb.edu
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU