FUTURENEXT KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT EXPERT KEYNOTES DCI'S DATA WAREHOUSE WORLD

"To know today's customers, you must analyze how they travel the Internet in the sales process," said Ed Tsang, Senior Vice President, FutureNext Consulting Inc. as he opened DCI's Data Warehouse World, "Unlike the days of face-to-face sales, today's e-Commerce customer is invisible to the seller." A data warehousing and knowledge management thought leader, Tsang addressed the attendees on "Knowledge-Driven Customer Service," providing a wake-up call for both the IT community and executives moving toward Internet-focused customer service. "Understanding and anticipating today's invisible e-Commerce customer requires analysis of all customer-related interactions, from your Web site to your supply chain partners," said Tsang. "Few businesses today are using the customer behavior intelligence that is already at their Web site's fingertips -- such as customer navigation and/or transaction patters -- to quickly respond with customer service personalization. Even fewer companies are integrating their e-business Web storefront and customer service with their supply and distribution chains to offer a seamless customer response system." Tsang reviewed the role of knowledge management, data warehouse, OLAP, and data mining tools to transform raw customer interaction data into insight about customer behavior, preferences and experiences -- allowing a company to maximize its share of a customer's business. "Many companies do not capture or analyze how customers navigate a Web site. Links made, time visited, banner ad clicks, and ignored categories are just a few of the customer preference indicators revealed in data mining," said Tsang. "The key is to integrate these knowledge-gathering tools into a comprehensive customer service program-one that can anticipate changing customer interests and needs-and personalizes the experience." Tsang closed his remarks by predicting that customers, sellers, suppliers, and distributors will be connected in the upcoming "virtual enterprise." The companies that connect on customer service will be the ones that effectively analyze and use Internet-gathered customer knowledge. A member of DCI's Data Warehouse and Knowledge Management (KM) Advisory Boards, Mr. Tsang is a leader in developing Knowledge Management methodologies. His accomplishments in the KM area include:

FutureNext's KM Program. The Model-based Business Knowledge Transfer technique -- the basis for high-speed, asynchronous transfer of business knowledge among employees; and Multi-Dimensional Knowledge Management Maturity Model. A means by which businesses may measure how well they are managing knowledge as a working asset.

Visit FutureNext on the Web at http://www.futurenext.com.

Steps involved in datamining: [ \The following are various steps in the extraction process. Data Selection: This involves choosing the types of data to be used. A database may contain data about customer purchases, lifestyles, demographics, census, state taxes, etc. If a retailer wanted to decide how to lay out the display shelves in the store they may only need to use purchase and demographic data. Data Transformation: Once the data has been selected it often needs to be cleaned up or possibly transformed into values that can be operated on by the type of data mining operation to be performed and the technique to be used. Data may need to be converted into numeric values to be used in a neural network, new attributes may need to be defined or derived. In one case the database included 500 different ways of identifying which state of the U.S. the information came from. Data Mining: The data is then mined using the desired technique in an effort to extract the information. There are many methods of mining for data. The method used is often based on the type of information you are seeking and the type of data that you have. Some of the methods are: association, sequence-based analysis, clustering, classification, estimation, fuzzy logic, neural networks, fractal-based transforms, and genetic algorithms. To develop a symbolic classification model to predict if a magazine subscriber will renew their subscription, you first need to use clustering to segment the database and then apply rule induction to create a classification model for each desired cluster. Data mining can also be:

Multilevel - able to compare between texts of any size. Multimedia - supports analysis of text and images. Multimode - operation includes interactive client-side and automatic server-side processing. Multilingual - analysis is designed to support direct comparison of texts in different languages.

Result Interpretation: Once the information has been extracted, it is analyzed based on the end users requirements, and the information is identified and presented to the decision maker via the decision support system. The purpose of interpretation is to visualize the output

(logically or graphically) and filter the information to be presented to the decision maker. It is not uncommon to find during the interpretation step that the rules or data selection needs to be modified. Some of the decisions to be made may involve large amounts of money and management tends not to be very enthusiastic about embracing ideas that they cannot understand or analyze for themselves. If management cannot understand the rules it is hard to explain to a client how they reached the decision.

SPSS ANNOUNCES DATA MINING EDUCATION PROGRAM

Combining the latest in software technology and analytical expertise, SPSS Inc. announced its Continuing Education Partner Program (CEPP) at the League of Innovation meeting in Chicago last night. Inspired by an established partnership with Cuyahoga Community College in Ohio, the CEPP provides a framework for colleges and universities to begin offering classes in data mining competency. SPSS is currently accepting applications for partnerships from accredited private or public higher education institutions with diverse and large enrollments. "We created the CEPP so that colleges and universities can offer a valuable advantage to their students and communities, " said Jack Noonan, president and CEO of SPSS. "This program will help them to prepare the labor force for the future. We are pleased to be involved in a program that will raise awareness of data mining at the collegiate level." The CEPP curriculum is founded on the Cross Industry Standard Process for Data Mining (CRISP-DM) methodology and emphasizes the critical skills necessary to conduct successful data mining initiatives. Using an assortment of SPSS' data mining software, including Clementine, the certificate program will focus on the manufacturing, health care, higher education, and insurance/financial services industries, attracting participants from those disciplines as well as business and IT programs. The objective of the CEPP is to establish national competencies in data mining. In addition to the strong focus on a data mining methodology, participants will receive instruction and evaluation in data analysis as well as software training. Upon completion of the CRISP-DM assessment and three application/software certificates, participants will be awarded a continuing education certificate recognizing them as a "Certified Data Mining Professional." For more information on SPSS, visit http://www.spss.com.

[ PREVIOUS ARTICLE | Table of Contents | NEXT ARTICLE ]