Data mining, data warehousing, decision support and knowledge discovery make up the universe of DSstar, the only executive business newsletter supporting strategic employment of these technologies.

The On-Line Executive Journal for Data-Intensive Decision Support
*** Jul 13, 1999: Vol. 3, No. 28 ***
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IN THIS ISSUE:

HOW CAN DM MAKE THE MOST OF CUSTOMER SUBSTITUTIONS?
META NOTES MAJOR SURGE IN DATA WAREHOUSING
COGNOS INTROS MORE AFFORDABLE DATA MART ARCHITECTURE

ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

DETECTING MEANINGFUL SUBSTITUTION PATTERNS
by Ed Colet

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

Consumer purchase behaviors are always linked to choices that are made. Substituting one product or item for another is a frequent choice that is made. Apples may be substituted for pears, or chicken for beef. Although current data mining algorithms can readily find associations among items, such as milk and cereal, what may also be important is discovering items that are substitutes for each other. Compared to identifying associations, identifying substitutions are not as straightforward to detect. Yet finding substitutions is important for several reasons; and detectable with current analytical approaches.

IBM SERVERS DOMINATE AS INDUSTRY REPORT INDICATES MAJOR SURGE IN DATA WAREHOUSING

According to a new study by META Group, "1999 Data Warehouse Marketing Trends/Opportunities," businesses of all sizes are proceeding at full speed to fund and deploy data warehouse applications. Moreover, META Group predicts that, by the end of the year, customer growth rates will lead to 30 percent of data warehouse sites exceeding one terabyte of data, the equivalent of nearly 700,000 fully-loaded floppy disks.

STUDY FINDS LEADING E-COMMERCE SITES MISSING THE "STICKY" FACTOR

A new study of 50 leading e-commerce sites by Rubric, Inc., a leading provider of Web-based E-Marketing applications, shows that most sites are failing to effectively market to some highly valuable customers -- their own.

COGNOS GOES VIRTUAL WITH WAREHOUSE PROJECT

Cognos will introduce a data mart solution, DecisionStream 6.0, that company officials said will provide the necessary business intelligence alternative for companies that cannot afford the time or money needed for a million-dollar data warehouse project.

DATA WAREHOUSE IS AN IMPORTANT COMPONENT FOR THE COMPUTER-BASED PATIENT RECORD

As the practice of medicine has advanced, so have the information systems required to manage the clinical and administrative data involved in the growing complexity of healthcare. According to Star Ault and Gerard Nussbaum of Hamilton HMC, a data warehouse is an important information technology tool that can help the healthcare institution meet these challenges.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IS KEY TO DECREASING SURGERY COSTS, UI RESEARCHER FINDS

In the era of managed health care, controlling costs has become crucial. Some health care economists have suggested that achieving financial savings in the operating room could mean patients in the future will have to wait longer for elective surgery -- as much as a year in some cases, which most Americans would be unwilling to do. However, a University of Iowa Health Care researcher has found a better way to satisfy both insurance companies and patients.

ACTION ITEMS

SPSS Ships Data Mining And Data Analysis Software For AS/400 Users; Data Preparation, Report OLAP And Advanced Statistics Complement IBM's Intelligent Miner
Until now, AS/400 users did not have access to statistics-based data mining and analysis software to help them realize the full potential of their data. SPSS Inc. has changed all that with the introduction of SPSS 9.0 for Windows NT and SPSS 6.1.4 for AS/400 servers.

ISI: Schroder Invests In Customer Service
The system, supplied by electronic information management company ISI (Image System Integrators) has been installed in SUTL's central call centre facility in London. It speeds the resolution of queries by providing staff with on-line access to commission statements and payment transaction reports, together with data mining facilities to identify and resolve discrepancies.

Molecular Dynamics Joins Spotfire Network
The combined offering will provide researchers and scientists with a complete system for filtering and analyzing data generated by genetic research, as well as integrating the data from drug discovery databases.

Microsoft And SAP Launch Enterprise Computing Lab And DCOM Center Of Expertise
Microsoft Corp. and SAP AG, a leading supplier of inter-enterprise business solutions, have announced the opening of two new facilities dedicated to the development, testing and support of SAP inter-enterprise e-business solutions for the Microsoft platform.

Hong Kong Bank Goes The Data Warehouse Route
The new system will help monitor customers' banking behaviour, said the bank. The client-server system is based on the Compaq AlphaServer 4100 running the Tru64 Unix operating system and SAS Institute's relational database system.

TECNOMATIX: British Aerospace Wings It With Simple++
Simulation allows the operations managers to understand fully their baseline throughput capacity and make sensible decisions to meet scheduled and forecast requirements. Used as an on-going decision support aid, Simple++ offers a number of advantages over conventional project planning methods, which depend largely on the skill and judgement of the planners.

Rubric Introduces E-Marketing Data Mart For Integrated Closed Loop E-Marketing System
The data mart makes it easy to analyze the most common sources of marketing data found on web sites, including customer profile and demographic data, click-streams, and e-commerce transactions. It is part of an enhanced closed loop architecture that seamlessly integrates e-marketing data analysis with the automated execution of personalized E-Marketing campaigns.

Cisco Introduces New Solution For Accessing Mission-Critical DB2 Mainframe Data
CTRC, a cost-effective software and router solution based on Cisco IOS software, replaces expensive and hard to manage UNIX and NT gateways for database access.

Decisionism Ships Aclue2.4
A key feature in Aclue 2.4 is support for Oracle Corporation's Financial Analyzer (OFA), a powerful budgeting, forecasting and reporting application. Aclue for OFA addresses the challenges of integrating financial data from diverse sources and simplifies the deployment of OFA, while maximizing its value for improved decision making.

HP Guides SAP Customers To Successful Business-Information Warehouse Solutions
Building on its experience as the leader in business-critical data warehousing, Hewlett-Packard Company has rolled out HP Impact Analysis for SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW), a customized business tool that shows companies how to easily integrate SAP BW within their SAP R/3 and data-warehousing environments. This value-added tool enables BW customers to accurately predict the resources needed for a successful BW deployment, reduces implementation risks and maximizes SAP BW and R/3 investments.

HP And Tanning Technology Launch Alliance Of Experts To Save Failing Data-Warehousing Projects
The new data-warehouse rescue service, offered by HP and Tanning, is designed to help customers quickly move their data-warehousing projects into production and get rapid value from their information resources. Targeted for customers with data-warehousing projects that are behind schedule, the service focuses on business objectives and improving upon service-level agreements that are not being met.

New Release Of MODEL 1 By Unica Technologies Enhances Integration And Automation
Continuing to enhance and expand its suite of Enterprise Marketing Automation products, Unica Technologies, Inc., has announced the availability of a new release of its award-winning data mining application, MODEL 1. The new release has improved reporting capabilities, user interface enhancements, additional security features, added client-server functionality, and compatibility with SAS statistical systems.

Group 1 Software And Primal Systems Announce Alliance To Enhance Telecommunications Customer Support; Companies Will Offer Fully-Integrated Customer Relationship Management
Group 1 Software, a leading provider of database marketing software, has announced a partnership with Primal Systems, a leading provider of customer management and intelligence solutions to the telecommunications industry worldwide. The partnership allows for the integration of Group 1's data quality and data mining tools with Primal's Outfront Decision Support System.

Sterling Software Announces VISION:Clearaccess 7.0 Featuring Support For Active X Controls
VISION:Clearaccess allows departmental end users, including those with no SQL experience, to access information in heterogeneous mainframe and client/server databases and create custom reports on their PC desktop computers. With the help of "wizards," users can build and distribute information ranging from simple queries to complex charts and multi-dimensional views of their business. They can perform data slicing, add dimensions and create and share other types of custom functions for use in ad hoc analysis.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"As acquiring a new customer is a much more expensive proposition than retaining an existing one, it is surprising that so few sites are cross-selling, up-selling, and reselling to their own customers."

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