Data Mining

The process of digging through data to discover hidden connections and predict future trends has a long history. Sometimes referred to as “knowledge discovery in databases,” the term “data mining” wasn’t coined until the 1990s. But its foundation comprises three intertwined scientific disciplines: statistics (the numeric study of data relationships), artificial intelligence (human-like intelligence displayed by software and/or machines) and machine learning (algorithms that can learn from data to make predictions). What was old is new again, as data mining technology keeps evolving to keep pace with the limitless potential of big data and affordable computing power.

Over the last decade, advances in processing power and speed have enabled us to move beyond manual, tedious and time-consuming practices to quick, easy and automated data analysis. The more complex the data sets collected, the more potential there is to uncover relevant insights. Retailers, banks, manufacturers, telecommunications providers and insurers, among others, are using data mining to discover relationships among everything from pricing, promotions and demographics to how the economy, risk, competition and social media are affecting their business models, revenues, operations and customer relationships.

Why is data mining important?
So why is data mining important? You’ve seen the staggering numbers – the volume of data produced is doubling every two years. Unstructured data alone makes up 90 percent of the digital universe. But more information does not necessarily mean more knowledge.

Data mining allows you to:

• Sift through all the chaotic and repetitive noise in your data.
• Understand what is relevant and then make good use of that information to assess likely outcomes.
• Accelerate the pace of making informed decisions.
• Learn more about data mining techniques in Data Mining From A to Z, a paper that shows how organizations can use predictive analytics and data mining to reveal new insights from data.

Who’s using it?
Data mining is at the heart of analytics efforts across a variety of industries and disciplines.

Communications
In an overloaded market where competition is tight, the answers are often within your consumer data. Multimedia and telecommunications companies can use analytic models to make sense of mountains of customers data, helping them predict customer behavior and offer highly targeted and relevant campaigns.

Insurance
With analytic know-how, insurance companies can solve complex problems concerning fraud, compliance, risk management and customer attrition. Companies have used data mining techniques to price products more effectively across business lines and find new ways to offer competitive products to their existing customer base.

Education
With unified, data-driven views of student progress, educators can predict student performance before they set foot in the classroom – and develop intervention strategies to keep them on course. Data mining helps educators access student data, predict achievement levels and pinpoint students or groups of students in need of extra attention.

Manufacturing
Aligning supply plans with demand forecasts is essential, as is early detection of problems, quality assurance and investment in brand equity. Manufacturers can predict wear of production assets and anticipate maintenance, which can maximize uptime and keep the production line on schedule.

Banking
Automated algorithms help banks understand their customer base as well as the billions of transactions at the heart of the financial system. Data mining helps financial services companies get a better view of market risks, detect fraud faster, manage regulatory compliance obligations and get optimal returns on their marketing investments.

Retail
Large customer databases hold hidden insights that can help you improve customer relationships, optimize marketing campaigns and forecast sales. Through more accurate data models, retail companies can offer more targeted campaigns – and find the offer that makes the biggest impact on the customer.