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
*** Jun 15, 1999: Vol. 3, No. 24 ***
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IN THIS ISSUE:

ED COLET DISCUSSES SUMMARY METRICS
NEW NEURAL NET MAKES STOCK MARKET PREDICTIONS
SENATE USES AI TO RESPOND TO EMAIL

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

A SUMMARY OF SUMMARY METRICS By Ed Colet

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

Data mining is a technology for the automated detection of meaningful patterns hidden in large amounts of data. Due to the sheer volume of data, it's often not practical to operate at a level that considers each and every underlying record in the data set. Instead, various summary measures or aggregations are pre-computed and the data mining algorithms then operate against these summary measures. But the particular way a summary measure is defined can be important in the subsequent analysis, and the subsequent interpretation of results. Use an inappropriate one and the results can be misleading. But given the prevalence of automated pre-computing of data, how can one ensure that appropriate summary measures are used so that valid interpretations follow?

MICHIGAN`S LARGEST HEALTH PLAN SELECTS VIPS` DATA WAREHOUSE DECISION SUPPORT SOLUTION

VIPS Healthcare Information Solutions has announced that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has licensed VIPS' data warehouse decision support product, MCSource.

PROGRAM AIDS STOCK MARKET PREDICTIONS

Computers, in general, are dumb. And when they can learn -- using a neural network program -- they are slow. But an LSU electrical engineering professor, Subhash Kak, has developed a neural network program that can learn instantly. Kak expects his work to have more wide-ranging applications. One field in which he is particularly interested is stock market predictions.

IBM RS/6000 SERVER SUPPLIES THE PLUMBING BEHIND THE PLUMBING

When Hirsch Pipe & Supply Company, a Van Nuys, Calif.-based wholesale distributor of plumbing supplies, projected a 40 percent drop in monthly sales for one of its hottest selling products, alarm bells rang. What was happening? With a new IBM RS/6000 S70 Enterprise server and sophisticated data mining tools, the problem was quickly diagnosed.

BOSTON-BASED TECHNOLOGY FIRM'S SOFTWARE WILL ANSWER YOUR E-MAIL

A Harvard Square company that has devised an artificial intelligence software package that can read and respond to e-mail confirmed yesterday that it has a new client -- the U.S. Senate.

ADMINISTRATORS WORK TO PATCH ORACLE8 HOLE By Charles Babcock

Oracle is saying little about one of the most significant Oracle database security flaws uncovered in several generations. The bug affects versions of Oracle8 and Oracle8i running under Unix, which is usually the configuration of Oracle in high-end corporate systems; it grants any intruder who discovers the hole almost unlimited access to any information in the databases.

DATAMETRIX TO DEBUT SUITE OF RETAIL DATA AND ANALYSIS PRODUCTS

MPSI Systems Inc. has announced final plans for the June 30th introduction of a new suite of retail data products through DataMetrix Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary whose mission will be to leverage MPSI's 30 years of retail data expertise and extensive worldwide retail data warehouse. DataMetrix will bring model-quality, spatial retail data to a broad cross-section of industries dependent upon consumer behavior.

DATA MOVES INSURER AHEAD

Two years ago, The Prudential Insurance Co. of America was in the Dark Ages of data analysis. But the company has quickly modernized and now has customer analysis capabilities that may rival the best in the financial services industry.

ACTION ITEMS

Algorithmics and Whitelight Form Alliance to Deliver Enhanced Decision Support Solution to Manage Credit and Market Risk Across the Enterprise
Algorithmics Incorporated has announced an alliance with WhiteLight Systems that will provide Algo Suite customers with a comprehensive and flexible decision support solution for the enterprise that goes beyond operational and desk level reporting.

D2K, Inc. Announces Availability of Tapestry 2.1; New Release Addresses Emerging Data Warehouse Requirements
The new release features significant enhancements in the areas of automated operations, performance, extended enterprise functionality, usability, and installation. Tapestry 2.1 automates the process of extracting, transforming, and loading data from heterogeneous sources into data warehouses and data marts.

ICARUS and SRIC Unveil Decision Engineering Analyzer to Unify Business Investment Decisions and Automated Engineering Analysis
Committed to develop knowledge-based tools that accelerate the making of sound, confident business investment decisions based on automated engineering analysis, ICARUS Corporation and SRI Consulting, Inc. have announced the availability of Decision Engineering Analyzer.

Acta Supplies Guinness a Global License of its ActaWorks and RapidMart Products
A leading provider of data warehousing solutions for ERP applications, has announced it has secured a global software license from Guinness Limited, a British company, for ActaWorks, Acta's award-winning ERP-to-data warehousing ETL tool, as well as Acta's RapidMarts, prepackaged, "out-of-the-box" data warehouse solutions.

SPSS Announces Data Entry Web Server and Data Entry Enterprise Server; New Software for Centralized, Web-Based Data Collection
Few people would deny the value of data, but many would welcome an easier way to gather it. SPSS Inc. will soon provide two easier ways to gather data in the form of SPSS Data Entry Web Server and SPSS Data Entry Enterprise Server. The new software products are expected to ship worldwide in late June.

Oracle Acquires Data Mining Business of Thinking Machines Corporation
Oracle Corp. has announced the acquisition of the data mining business from Thinking Machines Corp., a leading provider of advanced data mining software for predicting customer behavior.

Web Emporium LLC to Unveil New E-Commerce-Specific Data Mining Software At E-Business Conference & Expo
Web Emporium will unveil its latest Net.Commerce-specific Data Mining tools. This metrics and reporting package harnesses the power of Java and IBM's DB2 to provide online stores with the ability to view shopping data previously unavailable to online store managers.

RTMS and NeoVista Extend Opportunity for Retailers to Reach Customers
Retailers will now be able to realize greatly improved sales responses through their direct marketing efforts as the result of a strategic partnership announced between RTMS, Inc. and NeoVista Software, Inc. This improvement is made possible through the delivery of unprecedented accuracy in identifying, predicting and executing cross-selling and up-selling programs tailored to meet individual customer buying preferences.

MathSoft Partners with Bloomberg to Link Powerful Analytics to Financial Data
MathSoft, Inc., provider of the broadest line of technical calculation and analytical software for business and academia, has announced a partnership with Bloomberg, a leader in financial data services that business and financial professionals rely on worldwide. The collaboration will save financial data analysts valuable time by helping them identify and visualize trends in large amounts of complex financial data more efficiently.

Teleran's iSight 2.0 Access Monitor Brings Service Level Management to Decision Systems
Teleran Technologies, a leading provider of information access monitoring and management systems, has announced, Teleran iSight 2.0, an enhanced query monitoring and usage analysis facility for corporate data warehouses and Internet-based applications.

Universally Recognized "Fathers of Data Warehousing" to Keynote at Upcoming Informix User Conference
Informix Corporation, a technology leader in enterprise database-powered solutions, is pleased to announce that the two founding fathers of data warehousing will be keynote speakers at the upcoming Solutions Portal '99, the company's annual worldwide user conference.

Air Canada Selects Persistence Software to Automate Aircraft Maintenance
The Air Canada Integrated Diagnostic System (IDS) will allow Line Maintenance Technicians to make accurate, time-critical decisions concerning aircraft maintenance in near-real-time, and enable the Maintenance Control Center to monitor their aircraft fleet for faults.

Apropos Retail Ships Visual Allocation for Closed-Loop Decision Support by Chain Retailers
The latest product in the Apropos Retail Management Systems suite, Apropos Visual Allocation fully integrates with Informix's MetaCube to create a powerful link between Visual Allocation and Informix-based Apropos data warehouses and data stores.

STR Launches STR TradeWatch Loss Prevention Application, New OLAP Data Mart
STR, Inc., a leading developer of store software systems for specialty retailers, has announced the introduction of STR TradeWatch, a loss prevention data mart for specialty retailers.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Through data mining, we can quickly and accurately find out if our marketing decisions have been effective."

CONFERENCES & SEMINARS 06.15.99

DSstar INFORMATION

DSstar welcomes bylined comments for publication.

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