POLLS, MARGINS OF ERROR, AND DECISION-MAKING
By Ed Colet

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

In the current rounds of election primaries that are being held throughout the country, one often hears about the results from one poll or another. The objective of a poll is obviously to sample a subset of voters and on the basis of this sample, infer the true value for the population beyond the sample. Polls and samples can be useful for forecasting election results. In this column, I take a look at some of the factors affecting the accuracy behind polls and what underlies the margin of error. As such, the points here readily apply to any situation in where decisions are made on the basis of a sample.
 

SAS INSTITUTE AND B2EMARKETS PARTNER

SAS Institute, the market leader in Web-enabled data warehousing and decision support, and B2Emarkets Inc., provider of the first end-to-end, Web-enabled Strategic eSourcing Solution, have entered into a partnership.
 

KNIGHTSBRIDGE SOLUTIONS TO DELIVER DATA WAREHOUSING

By 2001, the average telecommunications firm will have more than 5.4 terabytes of data that can be useful in developing marketing applications and customer retention programs.

AXA Financial Successfully Launches
Recognizing the importance of quality data in a Customer Relationship Management system, AXA Financial used Evoke's Migration Architect is creating the first phase of a new customer database.

OLAP Report Says Cartesis Carat Surpasses Competitors
The OLAP Report rates Cartesis Carat # 1 in Financial Analytical Applications. Cartesis Carat is superior to Hyperion Enterprise 5.0 and other financial reporting and consolidation vendors in fifteen of the twenty-three features evaluated in The OLAP Report.

PTC B2B Internet Solutions Drive World Car
PTC today announced the successful achievement of the world's first race car Internet design marathon during which three teams on three continents developed the EUROC (European Roadster Challenge) race car in just seven days using PTC e-commerce solutions and the Internet.

Firstlogic Releases Ardent Plug-In
Firstlogic, Inc. has released a technology link allowing users to seamlessly integrate the i.d.Centric data quality software into the Ardent DataStage Suite.

Hyperion and Webtrends Partner
Hyperion and WebTrends will integrate Hyperion's business analysis platform, including Hyperion Essbase OLAP Server and Hyperion Wired for OLAP, with WebTrends' CommerceTrends eBusiness intelligence solution and Web data warehousing technology.

Claudia Imhoff Joins Braun Consulting
Braun Consulting, Inc., an Internet professional services provider, today announced the addition of Claudia Imhoff, Ph.D., a widely recognized industry thought leader, to Braun Consulting's leadership team.

Informix Includes Red Brick Decision Server
The Informix solution includes Red Brick Decision Server, a specialized database designed and optimized to meet the requirements of data marts and single-subject data warehouses.

NCR Continues Performance Leadership
NCR Corporation has anounced that it published the industry's first-ever one terabyte data warehouse performance benchmark on Windows 2000.

NCR Corporation and DWL Incorporated Form Alliance
NCR and DWL will offer insurers a data warehousing and customer relationship management (CRM) solution. NCR will provide to insurers its industry-leading Teradata database and insurance-specific logical data model, while DWL will provide consulting services and its Unifi and Identifi e-CRM software.

Sterling Software's Eureka Selected by PEMEX
After evaluating products from other vendors, including Business Objects and Crystal Reports, Sterling Software was selected as the preferred choice.

Pine Cone Systems Signs Distribution Agreement in Spain
Pine Cone Systems, Inc., the leading provider of data warehousing administration and management software solutions, and ETICA Software, a leading data warehouse solutions provider in Spain, have signed an agreement.

Targetbase Selects Unica's Predictive Modeling Suite
Unica announced today that Targetbase, a customer relationship management (CRM) solutions provider, has selected Unica's MODEL 1 predictive modeling suite to support its Adaptive Relationship Management solution.

Oracle Announces Warehouse Builder
Oracle Corp., the largest provider of software for e-business, announced the immediate availability of Oracle Warehouse Builder, an extensible and easy-to-use data warehouse design and deployment framework.

"Beyond the rapid ROI to be gained by lowering the cost of acquisition for a large dollar spend, the long-term imperative is to develop a Web-enabled business intelligence engine that captures the knowledge and makes these benefits scaleable and repeatable across the enterprise."

• Orville Bailey, founder and CEO, B2Emarkets

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