of public services, the Hong Kong Efficiency Unit created its 1832 Call Center to hear citizen complaints. With 300,000 complaints coming in each year, the Call Center stays busy routing public feedback to the right department for follow-up action. By the time the Call Center had collected a million complaints, the Efficiency Unit knew it needed a more efficient way to handle big data. So the Efficiency Unit turned to SAS® Visual Analytics for a high-performance, in-memory solution for exploring all that data quickly to spot patterns, identify opportunities for further analysis and to convey visual results via Web reports, iPad® or Android tablet. “We aim to serve citizens more efficiently and timely,” says W.F. Yuk, Assistant Director at the Efficiency Unit. “The less time we spend analyzing data, the more time we can spend better understanding things.”

1. CUSTOMER STORY
In Hong Kong, visual analytics
inspires better solutions to
public complaints
In an effort to keep improving the quality lot of time. A larger analyzing module
of public services, the Hong Kong can even take up to a month for the
Efficiency Unit created its 1832 Call results to be delivered.
Center to hear citizen complaints. With
300,000 complaints coming in each “With in-memory analytics, the Efficien-
year, the Call Center stays busy routing cy Unit gains faster calculations that
public feedback to the right department return results in minutes – not the hours
for follow-up action. By the time the Call or days that it used to take. Now that we
Center had collected a million com- can run data with different combinations
plaints, the Efficiency Unit knew it to analyze each possibility, we get more
needed a more efficient way to handle comprehensive results. Our staff no
big data. longer has to do any preparation work.”
So the Efficiency Unit turned to SAS® As a result of the improved level of
Visual Analytics for a high-performance, quality in decision support data, the
in-memory solution for exploring all that Efficiency Unit created the Barrier-Free
data quickly to spot patterns, identify Project to improve public accessibility
opportunities for further analysis and to for the elderly, disabled and children.
convey visual results via Web reports,
iPad® or Android tablet. Using population data and geographic
information from the Census and
“We aim to serve citizens more efficient- Statistics Department, analysts can
ly and timely,” says W.F. Yuk, Assistant recommend the best locations to install
Director at the Efficiency Unit. “The less elevators, for example.
time we spend analyzing data, the more
time we can spend better understand- “Our new analytic solution can simplify
ing things.” results and send reports via e-mail and
mobile devices, which means we do not
From one month to a few minutes have to print and deliver hard copies to
Of the Efficiency Unit’s 100 employees, each department,” Yuk says. “This
10 analysts have been dedicated for technology can help us better under-
several years to using SAS to analyze stand the needs of our citizens.”
government data. The onslaught of big
data meant they needed a more
effective and efficient way to do their job.
“The traditional way of analyzing
required a lot of preparations, such as
choosing data and analyzing modules,
and each execution takes a few hours,
or even the whole day,” Yuk explains. “If
the chosen data is not ideal, it wastes a

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unique based on business and technical variables and all statements must be considered non-typical. Actual savings, results, and performance characteristics will vary depending on individual
customer configurations and conditions. SAS does not guarantee or represent that every customer will achieve similar results. The only warranties for SAS products and services are those that
are set forth in the express warranty statements in the written agreement for such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Customers
have shared their successes with SAS as part of an agreed-upon contractual exchange or project success summarization following a successful implementation of SAS software.