IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio vs. SAS Enterprise Miner

It is well suited for solving large-sized, mixed-integer, and integer programming problems. Now, the new version supports for Multi-Objective optimization along with some new algorithms such as Benders Decomposition. It is less appropriate for quadratic programming problems where the objective function is the product of multiple variables. However, it's very easy to code any problem.

SAS Enterprise Miner is world-class software for individuals interested in developing reproducible models in a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps the most useful part of SAS Enterprise Miner is the ability to compare models with other models without writing code. The ensemble modeling capabilities is the easiest way to do ensemble modeling I have come across. SAS Enterprise Miner is well-suited for beginning to advanced analysts who know something about advanced analytics. The software is not well-suited for analysts or companies that have little interest in advanced modeling.

Incentivized

• Linear Programming
• Mixed-Integer Linear Programming
• Non-Linear Convex-Optimization
• Visualization
• Shadow Price Analysis
• Parameter Tuning

• Enterprise Miner is really visual and lets you do a whole lot without actually going into the detailed options. For decent results, you should really explore the different advanced options though.
• The recent versions of Miner allow users to use R code in Miner. You can then compare several models and approach to get the best performing model.
• The resulting data is really well displayed and easy to understand (ex: the lift graph, score ranking, etc.)
• Miner has the ability to integrate custom SAS code which allows the user to add functionalities that are specific to the project.

Incentivized

• Data handling from different sources like Note Pad, etc.
• Large size of MILP problems.
• Various parameters to set.

• With large data sets, SAS Enterprise Miner sometimes takes a long time to run. Sometimes you have to just leave your computer running while Enterprise Miner does its thing.
• If you want complete control over the modeling framework, you have to take what Enterprise Miner does and customize it. SAS seems to be working hard on making things easier to customize, but it's not completely there yet.
• The graphic capabilities of SAS Enterprise Miner leave a lot to be desired, especially in the era of self-service business intelligence software.

Incentivized

It's nice to use and with good optimization.

Honestly, to say, I never contacted CPLEX but used its forum to know/clarify any issues I faced.

I have contacted SAS twice in the past year and they have been super responsive both times. They solved my problem. I am also registered for an in-person class next month and they called today to tell me that it will be an online-only session. They apologized for the change and registered me for the online version. Super helpful!

Incentivized

IBM CPLEX Optimization Studio covers wide range of problems in comparison to Gurobi and also offers a number of visualization tools for results analysis. It has better customization and parameter tuning options in comparison to Gurobi. It offers various API integrations such as Python, Java and C++ which is not the case with Gurobi.

SAS EM has a very great set of machine learning and predictive analytics toolsets, which helped our organization achieve its goals. We used other tools, but for us, SAS EM was the most intuitive and easy to learn the tool and it provides greater data exploration and data preparation capabilities compared to the other tools we used.

Incentivized

• Faster computation leading to better internal customer relations
• Able to solve high variable problems with ease
• Anomaly detection became easier within business

• SAS Enterprise Miner is a positive ROI in the sense that it saves a ton of time coding.
• SAS Enterprise Miner is a negative ROI in that it's expensive, and perhaps makes analysts brainless.

Incentivized