Data mining, data warehousing, decision support and knowledge discovery make up the universe of D S * (dsstar), the only executive business newsletter supporting strategic employment of these technologies.

The On-Line Executive Journal for Data-Intensive Decision Support
*** July 21, 1998: Vol. 2, No. 29 ***
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Article retrieval instructions are at the end of this file.
For subscription information, email dssub@tgc.com

-------------------- * --------------------

IN THIS ISSUE:

INDERPAL BHANDARI ADDRESSES THE USE OF FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES IN DM
DW SYS ADMIN, A BUSINESS-CRITICAL SYSTEM, PART II
BY NIGEL CHANG
CAN DATA MINING CROSS THE CHASM?
BY JOHN THOMPSON

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

GOLDEN MEANS: DATA MINING AND THE FIRST FOUR HUNDRED PEOPLE IN THE BOSTON PHONE BOOK
by Inderpal Bhandari, executive editor at large

Inderpal Bhandari is widely recognized as a leading researcher in data mining and computer science. He is one of the few experts who have successfully demonstrated how the emerging technology of data mining can be translated into useful applications that offer a competitive advantage. Recently, he formed Virtual Gold, Inc. to implement his technical vision. Virtual Gold also offers a consulting service to help clients differentiate themselves from their competitors via the use of data mining technology.

From 1990-1997, Dr. Bhandari was a member of the research staff at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, where he received several awards for his pioneering work in data mining and in software engineering. He was the creator and project director of IBM's Advanced Scout, a data mining program used extensively by coaches of the National Basketball Association to devise new strategies based on the automatic identification of hidden patterns in game data and video.

He was educated at Carnegie Mellon University (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering, 1990), the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (M.S.) and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India (B.Engg). He has published extensively in leading computer-related journals and conferences and has deployed several cutting-edge technological solutions to business problems.

Dr. Bhandari writes: "I remember coming across a Meta Group study that reported that the percentage of data warehouses with 500+ users was increasing rapidly. Juxtaposed with that report was an article about a major bank that was investing 38 million dollars in its data warehouse by setting up a 50-person staff for analysis. The implication: A large number of employees use data. However, only a small fraction of employees actually analyze data."

DATA WAREHOUSING SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION, A BUSINESS-CRITICAL SYSTEM, PART II
by Nigel Chang

Nigel Chang is Director of Data Warehousing Projects for MetaEdge. MetaEdge was founded by IT professionals who saw the business challenges and opportunities revealed -- or perhaps created -- by corporate information systems. The company's beginnings were in the consulting field -- solving a variety of IT problems, dealing with very large database (VLDB) issues, building data warehouses. The data warehouse is not only a critical system in business, it is also difficult to maintain. This multi-part article emphasizes the critical administrative tasks that make a data warehouse successful.

Chang writes: "Unless you are a die-hard multidimensional database (MDD) fan, you can only choose to hug RDBMS. As I have mentioned before, data is everything. Your systems administrator is just one of its guardian angels, and in order to guard the data, a systems administrator must know the database management system. For the MIS department, DBMS is the only software people care about and is the only critical software running on the machine. Systems administrators ought to be trained in database systems in order to be able to communicate with DBAs and applications developers and in order to better serve their needs."

Part I of this series may be retrieved as D S * article: 100230

CAN DATA MINING CROSS THE CHASM?
by John K. Thompson

John K. Thompson is the Vice President of Marketing for Magnify, Inc. Thompson has over 15 years experience spanning all major technology management functions for software organizations. In his current role, as Vice President of Marketing, Thompson formulates and executes the strategic direction for Magnify, Inc. and the PATTERN product line. His technology expertise includes knowledge discovery, decision support, data warehousing, and database systems. Prior to joining Magnify, Inc., he held a number of senior technology and marketing positions at PLATINUM technology, IBM, and Metaphor Computer Systems. Thompson has consulted in Latin America, Europe, and Asia regarding the issues around building world class data warehouses and decision support systems. Thompson holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Ferris State University and a MBA in Marketing from DePaul University.

Thompson writes: "Can Data Mining cross the chasm? A provocative, yet timely question which deserves a thoughtful answer, or at least an informed opinion. Let me attempt to provide one or the other, or maybe both depending upon your opinion. In Geoffrey Moore's books, Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado, Mr. Moore has laid out the Technology Adoption Lifecycle (TALC). These books and the TALC discussed within them have become the high-tech bible for planning and executing not only marketing strategy, but also the overall business strategy for emerging markets and companies striving to attain leadership in those nascent markets. To attempt to have a conversation about high technology startup firms and their products without referencing the TALC or related jargon is nearly impossible."

ACTION ITEMS

Seagate Software Releases Free OLAP Tool
Seagate Software Inc. is upping the ante in the burgeoning OLAP market by offering a free download of its new front-end tool for online analytical processing. With the product, called Worksheet, Seagate is elbowing its way into the skirmish surrounding the release of Microsoft Corp.'s Decision Support Services, an OLAP server code-named Plato that will be bundled into the upgrade to Version 7 of the SQL Server database later this year.

Sun, M&I Data Announce 300th Bank in ProductionI Data Announce 300th Bank in Production Using Data Warehouse Solution on Sun Platform
Sun Microsystems, Inc. and M&I Data Services today announced that Independent Bank Corp. (IBC), a Michigan-based bank with more than $1 billion in assets, is the 300th bank using the M&I Information Desktop which leverages the scalable network computing architecture of Sun's SPARC systems and Solaris operating environment.

Anubis and MicroStrategy Form Technical Partnership
Anubis, a provider of innovative data warehouse design software, announced that it has formed a technical partnership with MicroStrategy, a leading Relational On-line Analytical Processing (ROLAP) vendor. Under the new partnership, Anubis will offer tighter integration of its flagship design tool, Constructa, with MicroStrategy's DSS Agent. Constructa is a product dedicated to business dimensional modeling, a recommended approach for companies to build data warehouses.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Many people have said that there are approximately 50 to 60 data-mining vendors actively building and marketing software and services. I think that there might be closer to 100. Each week I see new firms popping up, but most of them I rarely see again."

• John K. Thompson

CONFERENCES & SEMINARS 07.21.98

D S * INFORMATION

• Subscriptions & Removal information
• D S * STAFF
• INDEX OF D S * BACK ISSUES

All comments regarding editorial content should be sent to: dseditor@tgc.com