This paper is a case study to explore the analytical and reporting capabilities of SAS^® Visual Analytics to perform data exploration, determine order patterns and trends, and create data visualizations to generate extensive dashboard reports using the open source pollution data available from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Data collection agencies report their data to EPA via the Air Quality System (AQS). The EPA makes available several types of aggregate (summary) data sets, such as daily and annual pollutant summaries, in CSV format for public use. We intend to demonstrate SAS Visual Analytics capabilities by using pollution data to create visualizations that compare Air Quality Index (AQI) values for multiple pollutants by location and time period, generate a time series plot by location and time period, compare 8-hour ozone 'exceedances' from this year with previous years, and perform other such analysis. The easy-to-use SAS Visual Analytics web-based interface is leveraged to explore patterns in the pollutant data to obtain insightful information. SAS^® Visual Data Builder is used to summarize data, join data sets, and enhance the predictive power within the data. SAS^® Visual Analytics Explorer is used to explore data, to create calculated data items and aggregated measures, and to define geography items. Visualizations such as chats, bar graphs, geo maps, tree maps, correlation matrices, and other graphs are created to graphically visualize pollutant information contaminating the environment; hierarchies are derived from date and time items and across geographies to allow rolling up the data. Various reports are designed for pollution analysis. Viewing on a mobile device such as an iPad is also explored. In conclusion, this paper attempts to demonstrate use of SAS Visual Analytics to determine the impact of pollution on the environment over time using various visualizations and graphs.

Seeing business metrics in real time enables a company to understand and respond to ever-changing customer demands. In reality, though, obtaining such metrics in real time is not always easy. However, SAS Australia and New Zealand Technical Support solved that problem by using SAS^® Visual Analytics to develop a 16-display command center in the Sydney office. Using this center to provide real-time data enables the Sydney office to respond to customer demands across the entire South Asia region. The success of this deployment makes reporting capabilities and data available for Technical Support hubs in Wellington, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore--covering a total distance of 12,360 kilometers (approximately 7,680 miles). By sharing SAS Visual Analytics report metrics on displays spanning multiple time zones that cover a 7-hour time difference, SAS Australia and New Zealand Technical Support has started a new journey of breaking barriers, collaborating more closely, and providing fuel for innovation and change for an entire region. This paper is aimed at individuals or companies who want to learn how SAS Australia & New Zealand Technical Support developed its command center and who are inspired to do the same for their offices!