NAFCU Services Blog

Guest post written by Kristin Locklear, Account Executive for Credit Unions at SAS, the world leader in predictive analytics.

The SAS Institute is the NAFCU Services Preferred Partner for Business Intelligent, Predictive Analytics Software, and Risk Assessment.

President John F. Kennedy once said: “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” Change can be perceived as good or bad. The mere notion of it can bring hope or set off alarms. What we learned in Boston is that change is inevitable. In fact, you can bet that changes are occurring as I type these very words.

It can be difficult to wrap your head around change. Fear of the unknown can cause a business to remain in a historical state or slightly less progressive, what I call “the state of wait.” Even more counterproductive is the state of paranoid (re)action, rather than proactive momentum. So how do we move from say reaction to anticipation, to preparedness and effective action? How do we embrace inevitable evolution of risk and develop our own Productivity Campaign?

For years SAS has been the world leader in predictive analytics. We’ve seen our financial customers welcome and embrace a predictive approach to thinking—capitalizing on anticipation. We’ve seen our customers capture success by moving from frenzied reactionary thinking to a state of calm preparedness. Through predictive analytics, SAS customers are using real math behind their data to navigate the journey and intelligently go the course of change. Our customers are leveraging SAS to evolve from Phase 1 to Phase 4. Here’s what it looks like:

Phase 1: What occurred and why did it occur? The Frenzied Stage—the problem has already caused damage.

Phase 2: What is presently going on? The Floating Stage—there is no problem, nor progression in this stage.

Phase 3: What will happen if we stay the course? The Uncover & Discover Stage—you’re taking action by uncovering trends & discovering how to capitalize on them. You can anticipate and make better decisions based on true knowledge.

Phase 4: What’s The BEST That Can Happen? The Game Changer Stage—you’ve got it. If there’s change, you know when it’s coming, how, and the root cause. If there’s growth, you know how much you can expect. If there’s change, you can mathematically define it what that change looks like. You’re leveraging all of your data to better service your members and mitigate risk.

Think of it this way: if change is the law of life, it’s time to embrace it, and better yet, capitalize on it. The impending buying behavior of a member; overall branch performance; new & dying markets; compliance; it’s all changing. SAS provides the analytics to help get in front of that imminent change, so you are sure to not miss the future. Can you afford to miss the boat on the change that is coming and operate in Phase 1?

We can help. Visit http://www.sas.com/software/visual-analytics/demos/all-demos.html

The SAS Institute is the NAFCU Services Preferred Partner for Business Intelligent, Predictive Analytics Software, and Risk Assessment.

You may also enjoy “Big Data and Smarter Analytics,” a presentation from the 2013 NAFCU Annual Conference. Listen to the podcast »

For contact information and more educational resources, visit www.nafcu.org/SAS.