- BUILDING PREDICTIVE MODELS: PART I
by Ed Colet
- Executive Editor-at-Large Inderpal Bhandari presents a guest editorial by
Virtual Gold's Acting Director of Research:
- Data mining and other analytical techniques are often carried out with the
intention of developing a predictive model. A predictive model can take many
forms. It may be a mathematical equation, a decision tree, a neural network,
or a flow-chart diagram. While accurate predictive models can sometimes shed
light on the underlying process that generated the data, predictive models
also provide one with expectations about data that have yet to be collected
and stored. In part I of this column, I discuss the process of modeling --
and the notion of underfitting and overfitting. I continue next week, in
part II with a discussion of "goodness of fit" measures for evaluating the
fit and performance of models.
- DIMENSIONAL OBJECT MODELING
by Joseph M. Firestone, Ph.D.
- An object modeling approach offers advantages in supporting Dimensional
Data Modeling (DDM) of data warehouses and data marts. The current approach
to making the basic decisions in producing a DDM is a pragmatic one. The
pragmatic approach has had considerable commercial success, but it still
makes tight coupling of strategic goals and objectives to the DDM result a
matter of art, rather than a product of an explicit method or procedure,
results in a model composed of passive containers for data attributes,
rather than components that combine both data and behavior, does not place
DDM within a broader framework for integrating data and process -- that is,
the pragmatic approach is too data-centric, at a time when data warehousing
is concerned with integrating a complex diversity of server-based decision
support system functions.
- CACI FORMS STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH MAXIMAL
- CACI International Inc announced it has formed a strategic alliance with
Maximal Innovative Intelligence Ltd, an Israeli-based decision support
software leader, to offer Max -- the company's unique new data visualization
and analysis tool -- as part of CACI's suite of business intelligence
solutions.
- COGNOS NAMED "DIMENSIONALLY FRIENDLY" BY DW EXPERTS
- Cognos, one of the world's largest and most successful business
intelligence companies, announced it is the software industry's first vendor
to be recognized as a "Dimensionally Friendly" solutions provider by Ralph
Kimball Associates, one of North America's leading authorities on data
warehousing design.
- NET MARKETING ANALYTICS
- Broadbase E-Marketplace offers modules for analyzing transaction history,
market liquidity, and buyer and seller behavior; monitoring business
performance; and spotting industry trends.
- ORACLE DEBUTS ORACLE9I DATABASE
- Oracle Corp introduced the next major version of its flagship database,
Oracle9i, With Oracle9i, Oracle redefines quality of service through
patented "Cache Fusion" database technology delivering an order of magnitude
improvement in both performance and reliability.
- PLUMTREE SHIPS MASSIVELY PARALLEL PORTAL
- Plumtree Software released the Plumtree Corporate Portal 4.0, featuring the
new Massively Parallel Portal Engine. The release's patent-pending Massively
Parallel Portal Engine processes user requests for corporate information and
applications from a wide variety of computers in parallel, offering customers
major improvements in scalability, openness and fault-tolerance.
TD Securities Licenses NumeriX Software
NumeriX Corporation announced that TD Securities has licensed its NumeriX
Time Library derivative modelling software, which will enhance TD
Securities' ability to price and structure complex derivative instruments.
Acxiom Corporation Invests in Intrinsic
Acxiom Corporation, a global leader in Customer Data Integration (CDI),
has invested in Intrinsic, a leading Marketing Automation software provider.
Acxiom joins GE and SAS Institute as a strategic investor and global
partner.
Earthgrains Automates with Kenosia's dataAlchemy
Kenosia Corporation announced that dataAlchemy, Kenosia's flagship
marketing intelligence software, has been selected by Earthgrains Company to
automate its Category Management analysis and presentation.
ANTS Processes Over 5,000 Transactions per Second
ANTs software.com announced that tests only recently completed have
demonstrated at least a 2,000% increase in speed over a leading relational
database management system (RDBMS).
Cognos Supporting MS SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services
Cognos announced support for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services,
which is part of the Microsoft .NET Platform. Microsoft .NET creates the
next generation of software, which melds computing and communications in a
revolutionary way.
Cyveillance Selects IBM to Power its E-BI Services
IBM announced that Cyveillance Inc has chosen the company to power its
innovative e-Business Intelligence services. Cyveillance, the "Extra-Site"
e-Business Intelligence pioneer, scours the Internet to extract e-Business
Intelligence for its clients.
EDS Expands Strategic Alliance with NCR
EDS announced it has expanded its strategic alliance with NCR Corporation
to include NCR's data warehousing capabilities as part of EDS' new digital
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions.
Arlene S. Garcia Named VP Public Sector Sales at SPSS
To further its current strategy of delivering analytical solutions through
vertical business units, SPSS Inc has named Arlene S. Garcia vice president
of North American public sector sales.
Information Builders Supporting Hyperion Essbase OLAP Server
Information Builders' Middleware Technology Division, a global leader in
enterprise application integration, announced its support for Hyperion's
Essbase OLAP Server. This new capability lets businesses integrate
information from Hyperion's market-leading open, cross-platform, enterprise
OLAP (online analytic processing) server with over 85 other data sources on
35 platforms.
IBM To Rent Out On-Demand Data Storage
IBM, which already provides Web hosting, application hosting and other
services, said its new offering lets customers buy storage capacity and
management as needed, paying for it as they use it.
LECCOTECH Introduces SQL Expert Version 2.4
LECCOTECH, a global developer of database performance optimization
software, chose the opening of the Oracle OpenWorld 2000 (OOW) conference
and exposition (Booth No. 2326) in San Francisco to announce the new Version
2.4 of its powerful LECCO SQL Expert SQL performance optimization software
for Oracle databases.
Fiduciary Trust Company Selects Montclair SW
Montclair Financial Technology Inc (MFT) of Hoboken, New Jersey, announced
that the Fiduciary Trust Company, Boston, MA, has selected MFT to provide
application and data warehouse software which will allow online Internet
access for its private banking and investment advisor clients, as well as
for its own internal investment professionals.
MS Launches Windows 2000 Datacenter
Microsoft unveiled a new, high-end version of Windows 2000 and related
business software aimed at eroding the dominance of companies such as Sun
Microsystems and Oracle in running the largest business computers that power
the Internet.
NCR Provides XML Support for Teradata
NCR Corporation announced that its industry-leading Teradata database now
supports Extensible Markup Language (XML), the Common Warehouse Model (CWM),
and the Open Information Model (OIM).
NCSU Receives $1 million, 5-Year Sas Grant
SAS Institute, a market leader in e-intelligence software and data
warehousing software and services, announced a five-year, $1 million
software grant to North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C., the
campus where SAS software was developed more than a quarter-century ago.
IDS Scheer and Netfish to Offer B2B/E2E Solution
Netfish Technologies Inc and IDS Scheer Inc have agreed to integrate their
technologies to enable large companies and market exchanges to model, run
and capture metrics for collaborative business-to-business (B2B) and
exchange-to-exchange (E2E) processes.
Nestor to Help National Australia Bank to Fight Fraud
NestorCommerce, a division of Nestor Inc, in conjunction with alliance
partner ACI Worldwide, announces the licensing of its PRISM risk management
solution to National Australia Bank ("the National") for its operations in
Australia and New Zealand.
DDB Empowers Global Offices Through Web with SAS
SAS Institute, a leader in data warehousing and decision support,
announced that DDB Worldwide, the largest ad agency in the United States, is
using SAS software to better understand customer connections to brands
worldwide.
Largest DW Operation in China to Run on NCR System
The Shanghai Stock Exchange has selected NCR Corporation to build a data
warehouse to process its huge volume of data on transactions, clearances,
stock registrations, and audits, as well as to provide new value-added
services to its clients.
CA Receives Patent for ManageIT SQL-Station
Computer Associates International Inc announced it has received a patent
for its SQL-based application creation and optimization solution, which has
been incorporated into ManageIT, the first integrated suite of intelligent
application and database management solutions for eBusiness.
ViaChange.com Selects The Bernhardt Agency
The Bernhardt Agency, a leading high-tech strategic marketing and
communications agency based in Portland, Oregon, announced it has been named
agency of record for advertising and public relations by ViaChange.com Inc.
WSi Interactive Builds Technology Data Centre with IBM
WSi Interactive Corporation is pleased to announce the completion of a
world- class technology data centre. The data centre delivers
state-of-the-art reliability, ironclad security, and scalable capacity to
meet the escalating demands of e-business activities.
Interelate Announces Alliance with Yankelovich Partners
Interelate, a leading customer intelligence application service provider
(ASP), announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Yankelovich
Partners, a leading provider of information on marketplace trends and
consumer attitudes and their implications.
"We want to be able to create high-value information and
deliver it to the buyers and sellers in our marketplace.
It's not only a major value-add, but because our market is
defined by the lack of accurate market information, it will
solve that problem."
- Jonathan Cohen, president and CEO of 20Tons.com
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