ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY
PUTTING DATA MINING TO WORK: THE SEQUEL, PART I
by Michael J. A. Berry
Michael J. A. Berry is a client partner and director of the data mining center at Naviant Technology Solutions. Along with Gordon Linoff, also of Naviant, he is author of Data Mining Techniques for Marketing, Sales and Customer Support (1997, John Wiley & Sons). For more information on the book, see http://www.data-miners.com For more information on Naviant Technology Solutions, see http://www.naviant.com
Berry writes: "Readers of Data Mining Techniques for Marketing, Sales and Customer Support may recall that in the final chapter, "Putting Data Mining to Work," we described an ongoing data mining project for a cellular phone company. At the time that chapter was written, the project had been defined, but not yet executed. Now, several months later, I thought it would be interesting to go back and find out what, if anything, the data mining project had actually accomplished. For this article, I interviewed Gregory Lampshire of the data mining center at Naviant Technology Solutions. Gregory was responsible for most of the data mining work in this engagement."
SEVEN KEYS TO SELECTING A DECISION SUPPORT CONSULTING FIRM
by Jim Gallagher
Jim Gallagher manages the Data Warehousing Practice within Spectrum Technology Group, Inc. http://www.spectrumtech.com He has over 15 years of experience in building decision support and operational systems, managing client relationships, and leading people. He is currently a member of Spectrum's internal R&D organization for Technology and Data Warehousing methodology development, and supports delivery for Spectrum Data Warehousing engagements across the nation.
Gallagher observes: "You have fought hard and worked your internal organization to build the case for beginning a decision support initiative. Now you have a budget and a mandate; and your reputation is on the line to deliver. But like many other organizations, you don't have all the right expertise in-house. You realize that you need some outside assistance. The question is, how do you decide which Data Warehousing Consulting firm is the right one to help you?"
DATA MINING: THE TWO CULTURES, PART I
by Robert Grossman
Robert Grossman is president and CEO of Magnify, Inc. He is also Professor of Mathematics, Statistics & Computer Science at Center for Data Mining at the Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, specializing in database computing. He has organized and led a number of workshops on datamining, object-oriented databases, & knowledge discovery.
Grossman notes: "Data mining is about finding patterns in data. The importance of data mining has grown dramatically as the amount of archived and warehoused digital data has grown. The historical roots of data mining come primarily from two different directions: from statistics and from artificial intelligence. The statistical culture in data mining emphasizes the role of predictive modeling (PM). The artificial intelligence culture emphasizes the role of knowledge discovery (KD)."
ACTION ITEMS
Microsoft To Release Enhanced Data Repository
Microsoft Corp. plans to release by month's end the beta of its upgraded data repository, which includes a schema model that enables database definitions to be used across a range of applications and databases.
MSGI and Thinking Machines Partner for Data Mining
Thinking Machines, a leading provider of prediction-based loyalty systems, and MSGI, a marketing and information services industry leader, have announced a strategic partnership that will deliver sophisticated data mining and warehousing solutions to MSGI's more than 800 clients in North America.
Risk Managers Seek Advantages in Data Mining
Risk managers always have known crunching numbers can help them spot business problems, but not everyone realizes it is now much easier to do. Technological advancements are making it possible for risk managers to analyze data culled from numerous sources -- inside and outside their companies.
CONFERENCE CALENDAR
CONFERENCES & SEMINARS 12.16.97
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