Data volumes are growing dramatically by the day and every moment. While considering the fields of medical science and astronomy etc we realize that the job of looking into the data is no more like the yester years when it was possible for just human beings to interpret it. Today the sheer volume of data has made it mandatory to at least partially automate the data analysis process. New tools and methods have to be developed to help human beings from getting lost in the ever multiplying universe of digital data. To make any sense of such huge quantities of data, it needs to be made more compact and understandable.

What do the business people do with the data? In the business environment data is primarily used to,

• Gain competitive advantage
• Give better service to customers
• Increase efficiency

What is knowledge discovery in data mining? Termed only in the year 1989, KDD is the overall process of discovering knowledge from data and today data mining is actually a step in the process. Here one must emphasize that knowledge is the end product of data discovery. KDD has included new processes like, data preparation, data selection and data cleaning, incorporation of appropriate prior knowledge, and proper interpretation of the results of mining.

KDD is a term that has evolved from other related fields like machine learning, pattern recognition, statistics, AI, knowledge acquisition, data visualization, and high-performance computing. It is a very interactive process where a lot of decision has to be taken by the user.

The application areas of KDD are,

• Marketing
• Artificial Intelligence
• Finance / Investment
• Fraud detection
• Manufacturing
• Telecommunications
• Internet agents

Managed Outsource Solutions (MOS) is a US based company and an outsourcing leader that offers services in data entry, data mining, KDD, data extraction, data cleaning, data validation and data processing for clients in the US, Canada the UK and Australia.

Labels: data cleaning, data mining, data preparation, data validation, KDD, knowledge discovery

The first ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining WSDM 2008 is to be held at Stanford University, from February 11-12, 2008.

WSDM is being co-sponsored by

• SIGMOD (ACM's Special Interest Group on Management of Data)
• SIGWEB (Special Interest Groups of the Association for Computing Machinery)
• SIGKDD (Special interest group in Knowledge discovery and data mining)
• ACM SIGIR (ACM SIGIR addresses issues ranging from theory to user demands in the application of computers to the acquisition, organization, storage, retrieval, and distribution of information).

Registrations can be done at http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=155991

Managed Outsource Solutions (MOS) is a US based outsourcing pioneer and solution provider offering affordable services in data mining , data extraction, data entry, data cleaning, knowledge discovery, data processing and more to clients from the US, Canada the UK and Australia.

Labels: 2008 conference, data entry, data mining, KDD, Stanford, web extraction, WSDM 2008

Customer retention, customer conversion and better customer relationship management (CRM) are important factors for many types of businesses. Good customer relationship management has the objective to maximize the customer lifetime value for which a perfect understanding of the customer is mandatory. If this is not done in a proper way it may adversely affect the business.

How do we get to correctly understand our customers? Through valid and relevant data of course! Thus the quality of the data becomes important. We have seen that most of the time the data quality may itself be low and this can lead to a misunderstanding or an incorrect understanding of the customer. How can we be sure about the data quality? What steps have to be taken to deeply understand the customer and then use the data pattern discoveries to take positive actions to enhance business?

Given below are a few suggestions,

• Combine different data mining techniques
• Multiple source data has to be integrated before the data mining process
• Different types of data also have to be integrated
• Data cleaning has to be done
• Confidentiality of personal data has to be handled with care
• Legal aspects of data and its ownership has to be addressed
• Pattern discovery in data has to be tested
• First decide on the level of customer model depending on the type of business
• Data acquisition should be low cost / accurate and non-intrusive
• Data must be well evaluated and quality level should be improved
• Action mechanisms may be integrated with the discovery process itself
• Develop methods to integrate new knowledge with previous knowledge

Managed Outsource Solutions is a US based data entry and data mining company that offers affordable yet professional services in data entry, data cleaning, data conversion, KDD (knowledge discovery in data), data capture, data processing and data mining to its clients in the US, Canada the UK and Australia.

Labels: CRM, customer retention, data mining, KDD, pattern discovery