“Alexa, how many ounces are in a 750-ml bottle of wine?”

Every day many of us turn to some sort of search vehicle to help us solve a work issue or win a “discussion” with a friend. In fact, the word “Google”  has now become a verb in our lexicon. Don’t know what PROC BCHOICE does? Google it!

Here at SAS, there are over 30,000 pages on the support.sas.com site, so we recognize how important an efficient search can be for our users. As part of our continuing effort to evolve the site and provide you with the best possible user experience, we’re pleased to announce that this week we launched a beta version of a new search engine. We believe the new search delivers an improved experience, but we’ll let you be the judge.

We want you to give the new search a try and provide your feedback. Type a few terms into the search box, click the “Feedback” link and let us know what you think. We want to know what works well for you and what doesn’t, and which filters you see yourself using and which you think aren’t as useful. Is there a feature you would like to see and don’t? Please use the search preview as often as you like, and feel free to give us feedback every time you do. But hurry, because the search preview will only run until the end of December.

We’ll use your feedback to put the finishing touches on our search functionality. Look for our first production release in early 2018! We want the support site search enhancements to be as important in helping you use SAS as Google is in helping you become the champion of your fantasy football team!

Thanks for your help and happy holidays!

Click to image to launch; type in "Search" box; click "Feedback" to share your comments

Test-Drive SAS' new Support site search was published on SAS Users.

Today, we launch a beta version of six top-level support pages – accessible via your computer, smartphone or tablet by clicking on the banner on support.sas.com. The beta pages may look different from what you’re used to, but they are fully functional, and you can use them to fulfill your support needs. During the beta period, all current support.sas.com pages will still be available for your use, but we hope you’ll give the new beta pages a try.

As a company with more than 40 years of experience delivering business analytics software, we focus on making sure that you – our customers – are the beginning point for all of our work – whether we’re developing a new product or designing a new website.

Jim Goodnight, our CEO, put it best when he said, “For the past four decades, we’ve used a simple approach with our customers. We ask them what they want, and then we develop it for them.”

And that’s what’s at the heart of our support site evolution.

We’ve listened to your comments and suggestions. We’ve heard what’s most important to you.  And we’ve designed the new support pages with you in mind, focusing on your key tasks so you can access information, find answers and get help quickly and easily. Important information is now front and center and new, simplified navigation will enable you to get what you need with fewer clicks.  We believe the new pages deliver the experience you’ve asked us for, but we’ll let you be the judge.

During the beta period, we’d really love to hear what you think of the new pages. You’ll find a “give feedback” button at the top of each new page.  Please let us know what’s working well, and what isn’t; what you like, and what you don’t. And remember to give us feedback each time you use the beta pages.

Once the beta period is over and the new pages move into production, we’ll continue to evolve the site, working on lower level pages in an ongoing effort to give you a better support experience. We hope you like the changes we’re making and that you find the new support pages useful.

The evolution of support.sas.com was published on SAS Users.

Five things a SAS users should know this week...

5 -- SAS 9.4 M3 and 14.1 are available
4 -- Communities will go to read-only status from August 31 - September 7
3 -- SAS 8.2 Samples and SAS Notes have been archived
2 -- SAS Talks series combined with Ask the Experts series
1 -- Survey: What tasks do you do most on a sas.com web site?

5   SAS 9.4 M3 and 14.1

The most recent maintenance and platform updates from SAS became available in July 2015. SAS 9.4 delivers a more highly available and resilient platform for deploying SAS in traditional on-site environments along with additional support for private and public cloud deployments. With the third maintenance release of SAS 9.4 (9.4M3), we're also delivering the 14.1 releases of the SAS analytical products, which means rich new features and enhancements for products such as SAS/STAT, SAS Enterprise Miner (including SAS Factory Miner), SAS/ETS and others.

Need More?
Overview SAS 9.4 and the analytical products
What's new in SAS 9.4
Highlights of the 14.1 products
Request it

 4   Communities will go to read-only status

We are upgrading our support communities to modernize the design and add new features that you’ll love. In order to do this, communities.sas.com will be in “read-only” mode from Aug. 31 – Sept. 7, 2015. But don’t worry, and don’t leave us! You can still search our extensive archive for answers. With more than 200,000 posts, you will likely find the help you need. You just can’t post or answer new questions until Sept. 8. But the wait will be worth it…trust us!

Follow the announcements on communities.sas.com to keep up with all of the news.

3   SAS 8.2 samples and SAS Notes have been archived

We have separated the notes and samples pertaining specifically to SAS 8 from the SAS 9 samples and notes content. What does that mean to you? By concentrating the search only on content written for SAS 8, you receive less results and those that you do get will be more relevant to you as a SAS 8 user. If you are still using SAS 8.2, it means that you can visit the Samples & SAS Notes page on support.sas.com and scroll down to the SAS Version 8 search box. Enter your search term or phrase and find your content.

This is also good news for users of SAS 9. How many times have you searched for a note only to find a note specific to an earlier release? Judging for the search comments we receive, I'd say that this happens a lot. By archiving the SAS 8 notes content, we believe that we have improved your experience because all of your results will be specific to SAS 9 releases.

Note: It is possible that you will find broken reference links to a SAS 8 note from time to time. We are working diligently to locate and correct these links. If you do find a broken link, use the Feeback link to drop us a note about the link and we'll take care of it.

2   SAS Talks series to merge with Ask the Experts

SAS Talks is a Webinar series that has provided great content for several years. Many of you register to participate in a live Webinar where you can ask questions of the presenter. Many more of you watch the recorded Webinars at a more convenient time when you are ready to explore the topic. None of that is changing. So what is changing, you ask. Well, the name for one. Soon you will no longer find SAS Talks in the navigation of support.sas.com, but you will start to see more and more of Ask the Expert. Each Ask the Expert event starts as a live event that requires registration. Like the previous SAS Talks events, you will be able to ask questions of the expert presenter. You can also review an index of previously recorded sessions and watch on demand.

1   Survey: What tasks do you do most on a sas.com web site?

You know how much we love to get feedback from those of you who use our web sites, right? Well, we are at it again. We have compiled a list of 90 tasks that span everything from "apply for a job with SAS" to "open a Track with Technical Support". We hope to get lots of people with all levels of experience with SAS the software as well as SAS the company to complete this survey. We also want a worldwide audience, including English speakers and non-English speakers. You only get to select five things (see how 5 is a theme this week) that are your primary tasks. The goal is that you can complete the entire survey in under 10 minutes.

Take the survey!

Copy this link (https://sas.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_9LloxkIoflmMB37)  and share it with your friends.

Five things a SAS user should know this week was published on SAS Users.

We took the support.sas.com site that you use every day and spruced it up. In a way, we gave it a new pair of shoes and a hat. Visit the site any time after Thursday morning, April 16 and see for yourself. All of your favorite content, your bookmarks, and your applications are right where you left them. They just have a fresh new look. The new look brings more alignment between www.sas.com and support.sas.com, making the transition between the two sites less shocking and easier for you to explore information from SAS.

Here's a glimpse of the new top navigation on support.sas.com.

New, open look for support.sas.com header

In addition to the fresh new look at the top of all of the pages, we've created a new footer at the bottom of all pages.  This footer provides a collection of links to commonly used content on both support.sas.com and www.sas.com. These links make it easier for you to move from one area of sas.com to another with fewer clicks and interruptions in your activities. We looked at usage numbers and listened to your comments then selected a collection that we think will be useful on your daily usage.

New multi-link footer

We've done our part to give support.sas.com a little extra pep. Now its your turn to try it out and let us know what you think. As always, I look forward to hearing from you.

Have a comment? 

• Leave a comment on this post.
• Look for the Feedback link in the footer and send us your comment.
• If you are attending SAS Global Forum, visit the support.sas.com booth in The Quad. My colleagues will be there waiting to show you all the great features and to gather your feedback.

Thanks for using SAS and support.sas.com!

Note: This content has been cross-posted from the Key Happenings at support.sas.com blog.

SAS support site—not just another pretty face was published on SAS Users.