Data mining, data warehousing, decision support and knowledge discovery make up the universe of D S * ( dsstar ), the only executive business newsletter supporting strategic employment of these technologies.

The On-Line Executive Journal for Data-Intensive Decision Support
*** October 27, 1998: Vol. 2, No. 43 ***
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Article retrieval instructions are at the end of this file.
For subscription information, email dssub@tgc.com
-------------------- * --------------------

IN THIS ISSUE:

THE ETHICS OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
BY INDERPAL BHANDARI
DIMENSIONAL DATA MODELING COMES OF AGE
WHOSE TOOLS FOR ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING?

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

THE ETHICS OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
by Inderpal Bhandari, executive editor at large

Inderpal Bhandari is widely recognized as a leading researcher in data mining and computer science. He is one of the few experts who have successfully demonstrated how the emerging technology of data mining can be translated into useful applications that offer a competitive advantage. Recently, he formed Virtual Gold, Inc. to implement his technical vision. Virtual Gold also offers a consulting service to help clients differentiate themselves from their competitors via the use of data mining technology.

From 1990-1997, Dr. Bhandari was a member of the research staff at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, where he received several awards for his pioneering work in data mining and in software engineering. He was the creator and project director of IBM's Advanced Scout, a data mining program used extensively by coaches of the National Basketball Association to devise new strategies based on the automatic identification of hidden patterns in game data and video.

He was educated at Carnegie Mellon University (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering, 1990), the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (M.S.) and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India (B.Engg). He has published extensively in leading computer-related journals and conferences and has deployed several cutting-edge technological solutions to business problems.

DIMENSIONAL DATA MODELING COMES OF AGE

Pride International Inc., a $1 billion on- and offshore drilling contractor, has been employing a multidimensional database system since January to track the financial performance of its entities as well as the productivity of its drilling equipment.

DILEMMA FOR ERP: USE VENDOR OR DATA WAREHOUSE TOOLS?

A unique problem is now facing IT (information technology) managers seeking to utilize data warehouses for ERP (enterprise resource planning) ventures: Should they go with tools from their ERP vendor or from companies that are in the data warehousing field?

COMPETITION AND PRICING ISSUES DOMINATE EURO IT INDUSTRY

According to a new report by international marketing consultancy Frost & Sullivan, Profiles of Suppliers to the Information Technology (IT) Industry (Report 3197), the European market for Information Technology, valued at US$177.40 billion in 1995, is expected to show strong growth throughout the coming years.

ACTION ITEMS

Cartia Organizes Massive Amounts of Information onto Interactive Topographical Maps
Cartia, Inc. has announced the immediate availability of ThemeScape 1.0, a new application for managing high volumes of information. Using a process known as Enterprise Information Mapping (EIM), ThemeScape automatically harvests massive amounts of unstructured text, extracts the major themes and topics, and creates an interactive map of the information.

Acta Technology Ships Packaged Data Marts for SAP R/3 Sales and Cost Analysis
Acta Technology, Inc., a leading provider of data warehousing solutions for packaged applications, has announced the general availability of two packaged data marts for SAP R/3 which greatly reduce the time and level of SAP and data warehousing expertise required to rapidly deploy an SAP data warehouse. In addition, the company announced the completion of its beta test program, which culminated in the sale of its new RapidMarts to Acuson Corporation, Integrated Device Technology (IDT), Maxtor Corporation and Shell Chemical.

NeoVista Enhances Business Intelligence Software
NeoVista Software Inc., a leading supplier of business intelligence software and consulting services, has announced release 3.0 of its Decision Series software suite.

Software Smooths Path to Building OLAP Applications
Hyperion Solutions Inc. will ship a new tool that enables users to more easily link multidimensional OLAP cubes with relational databases.

Alabama Gas Co Begins Data Warehousing Project
Officials of the Alabama Gas Company have utilized three years of historical data about its 410,000 customers to undertake a data warehousing project linking all of its systems -- from new customer ordering to payroll applications -- so the firm can not only sharpen its marketing focus but also obtain a clearer picture of its own internal systems.

ISL Unveils Clementine Data Mining Solutions
The Clementine Data Mining Solutions program has begun with the release of Clementine Version 5.0, ISL's open, best-of-breed data mining tool. New additions to the Clementine range will build on an organization's existing IT investment, and allow quick deployment of solutions throughout the enterprise.

Informix May Strengthen Warehousing Capabilities
Users of Informix Software Inc.'s OLTP database could get stronger data warehousing capabilities as the result of the company's purchase of Red Brick Systems Inc. The $35 million deal, announced early this month and expected to close by year's end, will likely result in new decision-support and data movement capabilities for users of Informix's Dynamic Server database.

Evoke Software Introduces Next Generation of Its Data Profiling and Mapping Solution
Evoke Software Corp., a pioneer in Data Profiling technology, has announced the latest release of Migration Architect, a Data Profiling and Mapping solution that enables companies to better understand the content and structure of their corporate data prior to implementing ERP, data warehouse or data consolidation projects.

Keynote at Finance Forum Summit Highlights Pattern Management
Traditional financial institutions now face a serious challenge from on-line brokerage firms that are poised to aggressively sell new products ranging from insurance to mutual funds. Success in this battle for market-share heavily relies on the data based technologies that provide an edge in customer acquisition, retention and cross-selling.

BMC Software and D2K Partner to Deliver Mainframe Change Data Capture to Open Systems Environments
D2K Incorporated, an enterprise data warehouse vendor specializing in data extraction, transformation and loading, has aligned with BMC Software to deliver data propagation from MVS (multiple virtual storage).

New NCR Data Warehouse Solutions Designed to Help Retailers Better Manage Merchandise Assortment by Store
NCR Corporation has announced a suite of high performance merchandising solutions that help retailers optimize merchandise assortments in their stores to improve service to consumers. The retail solutions -- Sales Analysis, Inventory Analysis, and Assortment Management -- are designed to be readily customized and quickly implemented.

Lingo Announces Business Intelligence Warehouse for Hyperion Essbase
Lingo Computer Design Inc., a leading provider of Business Intelligence Warehouse Solutions today announced the availability of their FISCAL Business Intelligence Warehouse on Hyperion Essbase.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"You wouldn't want to bet your business on Version 1 of anything."

• Frank Gillette, analyst, Forrester Research

CONFERENCES & SEMINARS 10.27.98

D S * INFORMATION

• Subscriptions & Removal information
• D S * STAFF
• INDEX OF D S * BACK ISSUES

All comments regarding editorial content should be sent to: dseditor@tgc.com