Data Mining
Data mining is a concept that companies use to gain new customers or clients in an effort to make their business and profits grow. The ability to use data mining can result in the accrual of new customers by taking the new information and advertising to customers who are either not currently utilizing the business 's product or also in winning additional customers that may be purchasing from the competitor. Generally, data are any “facts, numbers, or text that can be processed by a computer.” Today, organizations are accumulating vast and growing amounts of data in different formats and different databases. This includes operational or transactional data such as, sales, cost, inventory, payroll, and accounting. Data mining also known as “knowledge discovery”, is the process of analyzing data from different perspectives and summarizing it into useful information- information that can then be used to increase revenue, cuts costs, and continue the goals outlined for the company. Data mining consists of five major elements: “Extract, transform, and load transaction data onto the data warehouse system, store and manage the data in a multidimensional database system, provide data access to business analysts and information technology professionals, analyze the data by application software, present the data in a useful format, such as a graph or table.”2 Extracting this information for future use will keep the company growing and adapting as the customer preference changes.
Tools and Benefits of data mining
Before examining the benefits of data mining, it is important to understand what data mining is exactly. Data mining is defined as “a process that uses statistical, mathematical, artificial intelligence and machine-learning techniques to extract and identify useful information and subsequent knowledge from large databases, including data warehouses” (Turban & Volonino, 2011). The information identified using data mining includes patterns indicating trends,
References: Advantages and disadvantages of data mining (2012). Retrieved May 30, 2012, from
http://www.dataminingtechniques.net/data-mining-tutorial/advantages-and-disadvantages-of
13:46, May 30, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_rule_learning
Data mining: issues
Turban, E., & Volonino, L. (2011). Information technology for management improving strategic
and operational performance (8th ed.)