Data Mining – We want it Now!
September 1, 2010
“We are drowning in information but starving for knowledge.”
What do you really understand about data mining? Dr. Candace Gunnarsson was formerly a professor of statistics at Xavier University. Her view of data mining is all about getting information out of the systems you have today and predicting future results. Her view is also about needing a DW modeled in a way that makes the mining experience easier and more meaningful.
Her view is that there is prescriptive (automated) data mining and descriptive data mining. I think most people think of data mining to be an automated process. Truly, the manual exploration must happen first. What do I think the drivers should be? If it’s predicting a purchase, I need to understand you as a customer. What magazines do you read? How old are you? Male/female? How often do you come to my store? All of these become data points in an algorithm that will lead to prescriptive data mining. If I can predict that you will make a purchase, I then need to be able to test my theory and provide results back to my model. Data Mining is Avery iterative process.
To have truly effective data mining, you need to have a multi-disciplinary team. Be sure to bring in your IT, Marketing, Finance, and operations-focused team members. They will all have different views of your customers and will understand their transactional data better than anyone else. Use all of these views to create a better view.
BIG Question – can you start data mining before you have your data organized in a DW?
I’d be interested in hearing your data mining stories.
- Jodie
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Data Mining – We want it Now! http://bit.ly/cu0CTv
Data Mining – We want it Now! http://bit.ly/cu0CTv
Data Mining – We want it Now! http://bit.ly/cu0CTv