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
*** August 4, 1998: Vol. 2, No. 30 ***
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Article retrieval instructions are at the end of this file.
For subscription information, email dssub@tgc.com
-------------------- * --------------------

IN THIS ISSUE:

DECISION MAKERS OR SUCCESSFUL MEN OF INACTION?
BY INDERPAL BHANDARI
DW SYS ADMIN, A BUSINESS-CRITICAL SYSTEM, PART IV
BY NIGEL CHANG
THE REAL MEANING OF CONVERGENCE
BY JOHN THOMPSON

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

DECISION MAKERS OR SUCCESSFUL MEN OF INACTION?
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: "Sometimes it is best for decision makers to do nothing, to put things off, to not act. I have read two articles in the recent past that emphasize this point. The first article was about Treasury Secretary Rubin. He explained the wisdom of not trying to reach a decision at every meeting. Decisions must evolve. If a decision is not reached in the natural course of events, it may signify that there is not yet enough information to make a decision. Forcing a decision under these circumstances would hurt more than help."

DATA WAREHOUSING SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION, A BUSINESS-CRITICAL SYSTEM, PART IV
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: "Disk striping is a must in data warehousing to improve I/O performance. However, striping would result in lower data availability. The systems administrator, prior to disk volume grouping and configuration, has to understand the trade-off and figure out the best striping set."

Parts I, II, and III of this series may be retrieved as D S * articles: 100230, 100236 and 100242

CONVERGENCE? OK, BUT WHAT ARE WE CONVERGING ON?
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 observes: "This week I am thinking about the much-hyped word, convergence. It is one of those terms that means something different to each individual, especially people in the high-tech field. Convergence has been widely discussed for the past few years in relation to the merging of traditional consumer goods and networked appliances, and regarding the melding of television, voice, and data networks. Now there are discussions in the Business Performance Management (BPM) marketplace about convergence. My first question back to anyone that I encounter talking about this is, "What are you talking about?" Not to be rude or confrontational, but unless the speaker frames the discussion fully, there is absolutely no chance that speaker and listener will be on the same page."

ACTION ITEMS

IBM Bolsters Business Intelligence Solutions with Exchange Applications' Software for Managing Marketing Campaigns
IBM has announced that it is incorporating marketing campaign management software from Boston-based Exchange Applications, into its end-to-end business intelligence solutions. With this move, IBM combines the data mining function, industry-specific data models, and hardware and database applications of its DecisionEdge solutions with the ability to exploit that data in the development of timely and customized marketing programs that target the identified needs of individual consumers.

Seagate Software and Informix Partner to Provide Scalable Data Warehousing Solution
Seagate Software, a pioneer of Enterprise Information Management and a leader in Business Intelligence software, has announced an agreement with Informix for the inclusion of Seagate Crystal Info 6 in the Informix Decision Frontier Solution Suite. Seagate Crystal Info, an enterprise distributed reporting and analysis system that gives users the flexibility to format and distribute critical business information, provides native access to the Decision Frontier Solution Suite which integrates Informix Dynamic Server with Advanced Decision Support Option and Informix MetaCube ROLAP Option.

Informix Spatial DataBlade Simplifies Complex Data Analysis Through Advanced Three-Dimensional Views
Informix Corporation, a provider of enterprise database-powered solutions, has announced new DataBlade technology designed to help application developers quickly transform complex spatial data objects into three-dimensional views. This means users can now analyze and manipulate valuable data that would otherwise be difficult to uncover. Called the Formida Fire Spatial DataBlade module, the new product was created by Formida Software Corporation as a module for Informix Dynamic Server with Universal Data Option. Fire Spatial DataBlade module was unveiled at the annual Informix Worldwide User Conference held in Seattle.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

(S)ee the wisdom of keeping an ace or two up one's sleeve...

CONFERENCES & SEMINARS 08.04.98

D S * INFORMATION

D S * welcomes bylined comments for publication.

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

[ FIRST ARTICLE ]