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
*** May 4, 1999: Vol. 3, No. 18 ***
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IN THIS ISSUE:

ED COLET ON ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS OF DATA MINING APPLICATIONS
MDC AND OMG COMBINE FOR META-DATA STANDARDS
HOW DICK'S SUPERMARKETS USE DATA MINING TOOLS

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

IF YOU ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS, YOU CAN GET THE RIGHT ANSWERS
by Ed Colet, Virtual Gold Inc.

Executive Editor-at-Large Inderpal Bhandari presents a guest editorial by Virtual Gold's Acting Director of Research:

It may seem trite to note that when one asks a question, one receives an answer. However, the way a question is asked can strongly influence the answer, and the nature of this relationship can be quite interesting. In inter-personal communications people at times may not be aware of this effect, while at other times, it is explicitly acknowledged. But this effect is also present when technology (rather than another person) is handling the questions and answers.

MDC AND OMG COMBINE EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH META-DATA STANDARDS

Two separate standards groups, the Meta Data Coalition (MDC) and the Object Management Group (OMG), have entered into a cooperative agreement to take on the onerous task of developing a single set of meta-data standards.

DATA MINING
by Stewart Deck

DataMining. You've probably heard of it. Or maybe you've heard of data warehousing. Mining and warehousing are related -- warehousing brings your data together for analysis. Mining sorts through the data you've collected and turns up interesting and useful connections.

INFORMATION JACKPOT WAS IN THE CARDS

Dick's Supermarkets uses data mining tools from Datasage Inc. in Reading, Mass., to gather purchasing-history information from shoppers' scan cards. The company then uses this data to identify product relationships and customer buying patterns. Kenneth L. Robb, senior vice president of marketing at Platteville, Wis.-based Brodbeck Enterprises Inc., which operates the eight-store supermarket chain, recently talked to Computerworld about the project.

ACTION ITEMS

Pyramid Introduces an Innovative Data-Warehousing Solution for Retirement Plan Processors -- Pan-American Life To Be the Industry's First User
Pyramid Digital Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of Internet, voice and data-access technology, has announced the introduction of PlanWarehouse, the retirement plan processing industry's first out-of-the-box data-warehousing solution. PlanWarehouse enables retirement plan processors to provide their sponsors and administrators with instant access to plan data via a standard Internet browser.

BMC Software Selects Pine Cone Systems' Usage Tracker for Managing Data Warehousing Applications
Pine Cone Systems, a leading provider of data warehousing administration and management software solutions, has announced an agreement with BMC Software, Inc., a leading developer of software solutions that improve the availability, performance and recoverability of business-critical applications and data, that will provide BMC Software's Enterprise Data Propagation (EDP) customers with detailed data warehouse usage statistics, enabling them to intelligently select the required data to propagate to the data warehouse.

Informatica Announces "Business Components" Software for Accelerating, Simplifying Deployment of Analytic Applications
Informatica Corporation, provider of one of the leading software platforms for powering analytic applications, has debuted Business Components, a new family of software products for speeding and simplifying the complex process of moving data from corporate operational systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, into analytic applications.

Sequent Data Center Servers Fuel Ford's Global Warranty Data Warehouse
Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. has announced that Ford Motor Company, the world's second-largest vehicle manufacturer, has upgraded its Analytical Warranty System (AWS) with new second-generation NUMA-Q 2000 servers from Sequent. Ford's AWS is a corporate-wide data warehouse that combines all vehicle and warranty claims and related parts information on Ford cars and trucks from the past 10 years into a single searchable repository analysis.

QueryObject System Version 3.0 Released for IBM Mainframes
QueryObject Systems Corporation has announced the release of the new Version 3.0 of its QueryObject System data mart software specifically for the MVS S390 mainframe operating system used by IBM, Amdahl, and other hardware vendors. This new version - the only system currently shipping for building multi-dimensional analytical environments directly on MVS mainframes - allows data intensive industries such as telecommunications, healthcare and insurance, and financial services to achieve competitive advantage by more rapidly analyzing larger volumes of corporate data than is possible using other data mart systems.

Informatica Announces 'PowerConnect' Software to Help Companies Unlock ERP Data for Strategic Business Analysis
Informatica Corporation, provider of one of the leading software platforms for powering analytic applications, has introduced PowerConnect for SAP R/3 and PowerConnect for PeopleSoft, new software products that will allow companies to directly extract and integrate the vast amounts of corporate data stored in their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in order to leverage it for enterprise decision support.

Prime Response Announces Integration with NCR's Teradata Database
At NCR's Customer Relationship Management Conference Prime Response, a leading marketing automation solutions provider, has announced the availability of its flagship marketing automation software, Prime Vantage, with NCR's Teradata relational database.

Meta Software Rolls-Out Version 4.1; Introduces New Products to Further Enhance its WorkFlow Analyzer Line
Meta Software Corporation, a leading developer of modeling and simulation products and services that help organizations improve critical business processes, has begun shipping WorkFlow Analyzer Version 4.1.

Cognos Expands Enterprise Business Intelligence With New Visualization Offering
Cognos, a leading strategic vendor of enterprise business intelligence solutions, has introduced Cognos Visualizer, a business management and measurement solution that extends its awarding winning PowerPlay and Impromptu software with advanced visual reporting and analysis.

Acta Technology Announces Major Upgrade of its Data Warehousing Solution for Use with SAP R/3 and PeopleSoft
Acta Technology, Inc., a leading provider of data warehousing solutions for ERP applications, has announced a major upgrade of its award-winning ERP-to-data warehouse extraction, transformation and loading tool explicitly designed and developed to be tightly integrated with SAP R/3, PeopleSoft and other ERP applications.

SAS Institute Announces Quality Center
SAS Institute Inc., a market leader in integrated data warehousing and decision support, has announced the development of its Quality Center.

Brio Extends Alliance With IBM to Deliver a Powerful New Platform for Web-Based Analytic Applications
Brio Technology, Inc. has announced eWarehouse, a complete program for building and delivering the next generation of business intelligence applications for the Internet. The eWarehouse program combines the advanced analytic application development capabilities of Brio Enterprise 6.0 with IBM Visual Warehouse, along with training, support and partner programs.

Pilot Software Announces Pilot Internet Publisher 6.1 Decision Support Solution for Web
Pilot Software, a leading provider of Web-based and client/server online analytical processing (OLAP) business intelligence and performance measurement solutions, has announced Pilot Internet Publisher (PIP) Version 6.1, which delivers powerful decision support solutions on the World Wide Web to users at corporate or remote locations through popular Web browser interfaces.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"If there could be one unified standard for specifying meta data, that would make customer's lives easy, but that's not the way things are."

CONFERENCES & SEMINARS 05.4.99

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