E-mine Applies Data Mining To Help Enterprises Improve Customer Relationships

Thar's gold in that thar Web! - gold in the form of data that can help e-businesses realize the promise of CRM and e-CRM (customer relationship management). SPSS Inc. announced a new analytical solution called e-mine to help organizations make real time use of the data their Web sites gather every day. e-mine, which is available through SPSS' consulting division, applies a proven data mining methodology to help companies improve profitability and customer relationships at every point of customer contact, including the Web.

E-mine combines data mining techniques, technology, and applied expertise to help e-businesses analyze the data they gather from many sources, such as Web and phone logs, visitor behavior, and transactions, and apply the results of their analysis to personalize customer interactions in real time. In business terms, e-mine helps enterprises:

• Know more about their customers and predict who is most likely to purchase specific products or services.
• Determine which products are often purchased together and create product bundles or suggestions.
• Identify the web visitor 'type' based on online behaviors.
• Identify factors that impact online sales of a specific product or service.
• Identify which pages are key stepping stones to successful outcomes (i.e., purchases).
• Identify customers who are likeliest to leave, when they are about to leave, and why.
• Know who buyers are, where they visit, and which content is most effective at gaining sales.
• Evaluate where visitors are coming from and what they are looking for.

"A critical component of CRM is the ability to respond quickly to customers at whatever touch point they choose," said Jack Noonan, SPSS president and CEO. "If the analytical portion of a CRM application is limited to reporting and OLAP - if it does not include data mining and deployment - executives can only see what happened. They can't make predictions or personalize customer interactions in real time, which is important to satisfy today's savvy consumer, particularly on the Web," Noonan added. "Data mining is needed to effect positive change quickly, and that's why we say `data mining makes the difference.' SPSS' e-mine program helps e-businesses develop data mining capabilities, giving them predictive information essential for success in mission-critical CRM and e-business applications."

Virtually any business with or looking to establish an online presence can benefit from data mining. For example, an online retailer could use e-mining to convert more visitors to paying customers. In this case, SPSS e-mine consultants identify which data is needed and how to collect it. They then select the data mining methods which most effectively model Web behaviors, characteristics of visitors and the factors that impact online sales. From this analysis, the consultants build an e-mining solution that models the data, scores individual visitors as they browse the Web site and predicts their needs and behaviors. With this information, the retailer can determine which factors encourage and discourage purchases and then trigger custom content and offers in real time on the Web or via other touch points, such as call centers, to increases sales.

"While data mining is important to many types of businesses, the data-centric nature of the Web makes the benefits especially pronounced for Web-based businesses," Noonan said. "e-mine offers enterprises the benefit of SPSS' depth of award-winning products and breadth of industry-acknowledged expertise -- which, when combined, get our customers quickly using their online and offline data to understand and serve their customers better."

People interested in the e-mine program can find more information at http://www.spss.com/emine. The Web site includes a White Paper entitled "Making personalized e-relationships a reality," details on the steps of the e-mine Audit - the first step of the e-mine program, and links to information on SPSS' data mining products and services. Interested parties can also request information from sales@spss.com. For more information, visit http://www.spss.com/.