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
*** January 12, 1999: Vol. 3, No. 2 ***
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IN THIS ISSUE:

FOLLOWING HOLIDAY DATA TRAILS
BY ED COLET
DATA WAREHOUSE SUITE STAKES
BY JAMES CONNOLLY
STEINKRUG UNVEILS GENEPAGE WEB ACTIVITY TECHNOLOGY

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

FOLLOWING HOLIDAY DATA TRAILS
by Ed Colet

Ed Colet is the Acting Director of Research at Virtual Gold Inc., responsible for developing analytical methods for data mining and for investigating human factors and usability issues of business intelligence systems. At present, he is in the final stage of completing a doctoral dissertation in the Cognition and Perception program at New York University's Department of Psychology. Ed has also worked for IBM Research at the T.J. Watson Research Center. At IBM, Ed was a member of the group that developed Advanced Scout, the data mining application for NBA teams. His research interests focus on statistical methods and human factors.

DATA WAREHOUSE SUITE STAKES
by James Connolly, ComputerWorld

In 1998, database management system vendors announced products that let you crunch more data, faster, yawn ... Wait a minute, they actually did something different, too. Their data warehousing tool suites opened some eyes.

STEINKRUG UNVEILS GENEPAGE WEB ACTIVITY TECHNOLOGY

Steinkrug Publications has taken the wraps off a software technology that monitors a user's activity on the Web and creates a Web page file that encapsulates their research on the Web using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

COGNOS SCENARIO WINS INDUSTRY AWARD: COGNOS BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE MINING TOOL IS NAMED TO CROSSROADS 99 A-LIST

Cognos, a leading strategic business intelligence vendor, announced that Scenario was awarded the Crossroads 99 A-List Award for Data Mining. Scenario automates the discovery and ranking of critical factors and exposes hidden relationships within corporate data.

ACTION ITEMS

First Data teams with Lucent Technologies' Visual Insights Software
Lucent Technologies and First Data Corporation (FDC) have announced an agreement for FDC to use Visual Insights data visualization software to help clients better use their bankcard data.

SPSS Ships SPSS 9.0 For Windows; New Analysis Features and Data Access Options Improve Leading Data Analysis Software
SPSS 9.0 for Windows, now shipping in North America, features enhanced graphical analysis capabilities, new statistics and new data access tools to simplify the acquisition and analysis of these large amounts of data from numerous sources.

Cognos Technology Acquisition Provides Foundation for Complete Data Mart Solution
Cognos, a leading strategic supplier of enterprise business intelligence solutions, has announced the purchase of the assets of Relational Matters, and, notably, the DecisionStream software for US$10 million in a mixture of cash and stock.

Sequent, Oracle Extend OLTP Performance Lead in TPC-C Benchmark for a Single System
Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. and Oracle Corp. have announced record-breaking TPC-C (Transaction Processing Performance Council Benchmark C) benchmark results for a single system.

Pharsight Unveils Enhanced Software for Clinical Drug Development; Partnership with SAS Institute Brings Streamlined Clinical Design and Data Management to the Drug Development Process
Pharsight Corporation, a leader in computer-assisted trial design (CATD) software and services announced the release of Pharsight Trial Designer 1.2. This new version of the software helps pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies bring drugs to market faster by assisting in the design of more efficient and cost-effective drug clinical trials.

Informix Heralds a New Age for Data Warehousing
Informix Corporation, a technology leader in enterprise database-powered solutions, has announced the completion of its acquisition of Red Brick Systems, delivering to market open end-to-end data warehouse solutions for the most demanding enterprise environments.

Keane Acquires Emergent Corporation; Acquisition To Enhance Keane`s ERM Practice by Providing Scalable Data Warehousing Capabilities
Leading IT consulting firm Keane, Inc. announced it has acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of Emergent Corporation, a privately-held business consulting firm and systems integrator providing scalable data warehousing solutions. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

NEC Packages Server with Data-Warehouse Software
NEC Corp. began sales Tuesday of sets comprising its Express5800/120ma server and Canadian firm Cognos Inc.'s PowerPlay Server Web Edition data-warehousing software.

Leading Financial Services, Insurance Companies Choose Informatica for Enterprise Decision Support
Informatica Corporation, provider of a leading software platform for enterprise business intelligence and analytic applications, has announced that more than 30 of the world's largest and most prestigious financial services and insurance organizations have selected Informatica's software to deploy mission-critical enterprise data warehousing solutions for decision support.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

(T)here's a lot to learn from the electronic data trails made from online purchases.

• Ed Colet

CONFERENCES & SEMINARS 01.12.99

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